[Sigia-l] ballot usability redux

[Listera]

"James Spahr" wrote:
> If most states are like New York -- then they already do. Ballots in
> NYC (and Long Island -- they only 2 places where I have voted) contain
> local, regional, state and national election data on them. That means
> each voting district has a slightly different ballot than it's
> neighboring district. That's a whole lot of variations that could be
> made, probably not 139!, but enough to make a difference (see below)

I was responding to the notion of making *every* voter's ballot unique, to
introduce statistical randomness. According to the California elections
officers I've been watching on TV, they claim to be under severe pressure to
produce and organize even the most minimal arrangements by Oct.
 
> I may go in and know that I want to vote for the Green Party. Doesn't
> matter whom -- they just have to care about the environment. I know
> *alot* of people who vote like this for local and congressional
> elections.

In that case it doesn't matter whether you scan alpha or random *names*
since you are not parsing the actual 193 names anyway, you'd be looking for
secondary attributes, such as party affiliation. So, unless they group by
parties and I haven't heard anybody suggesting that, then looking for
affiliations is random, whether the candidate names are randomized or
alphabetized.
 
> But, I agree. Voting is hopefully not like looking up a mini-storage
> place in the yellow pages. I truly hope voting is analogous to someone
> undergoing the search for an attorney.

Well, it's a question of "findability". :-)

Ziya
Nullius in Verba