[Sigia-l] ballot usability redux

[James Spahr]

On Monday, August 11, 2003, at 02:44  AM, Listera wrote:

> I was responding to the notion of making *every* voter's ballot 
> unique, to
> introduce statistical randomness.

Do you need to make *every* ballot unique to introduce "statistical 
randomness" ? From my admittedly limited statistical knowledge, I don't 
think so. This is falling under the same math that makes the 
statistical concept of 'sampling' relevant.

Yea, I'm being a bit of an *sshole here. My point is that the goal 
could be achieved without a major change in the election board's 
workflow -- granted I am playing the part of an armchair quarterback.

>> 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.

no no. I think it does. In this case the first name listed with a Green 
Party affiliation *has* an advantage if a) I understood what Jared was 
saying and b) the Verizon research is applicable.

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

Very funny :) (no sarcasm). Any way you slice it, organizing the 139 
names may be a loose/loose situation -- since the names on page 1 are 
going to have an advantage. For the sole reason that voters may not use 
to having a multiple page ballot.

Then again. The ADA guidelines for legibility state : that type can not 
be smaller than Helvetica 12 over 14. That means about 5.1 lines of 
type per inch ... (carry the one) ... you would need 27 inches of paper 
to fit 139 lines of type.

Perhaps we do not need multiple pages ...


James.