Sound Politics: "Voter Intent"

October 31, 2006

"Voter Intent"

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation reports that the Secretary of State has released guidelines for canvassing boards to divine "voter intent" from mismarked ballots.

The 37-page guidelines document is here. It's one positive step, anyway, beyond the insconsistent and arbitrary process that I documented last year. But this is not enough. What good are these guidelines if voters don't know how their intent will be divined? What confidence can we have that intent is being divined correctly? If Sam Reed believes that everybody should vote by mail and that election officials should divine the voters' markings, then he should have insisted that these guidelines be mailed to every voter along with the ballot.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 31, 2006 12:08 PM | Email This

Comments

1. I agree, still more needs to be done, but it is interesting that many examples you gave last year of an acceptable ballot by the KCCB would not be considered valid votes under these rules.

For example, on page 17 it gives rules and examples that would specifically have denied the Christine Rossi vote.

Little by little.

Posted by: SouthernRoots on October 31, 2006 01:00 PM

2. Let's just see how well KCE can follow directions.

Posted by: TrueSoldier on October 31, 2006 01:03 PM

3. I remember in Rockford, IL which used paper ballots, the "voter intent" question was "Did the voter intend to put an 'X' in the box in the manner indicated by the instructions"? If there was an 'x' whose center was inside the box, even if it was a little lopsided, it counted. But if a box was filled in, or circled, or checkmarked, the ballot was void. I remember a race was actually affected by this policy--the runner-up would have won if "checkmarked" ballots counted--but the policy was publicised clearly before the election and there was little complaint.

Trying to implement flexible standards of "voter intent" is a recipe for disaster. For optical-scan ballots the standard should be whether people followed directions. If someone fails to follow directions, their vote doesn't count. Simple.

Posted by: supercat on November 3, 2006 04:39 PM