[Sigia-l] Radio Buttons versus Checkboxes

[Christopher Fahey [askrom]]

The political organization Move On is sponsoring a kind of online 2-day
"straw poll" (Tuesday and Wednesday) to determine if (and potentially
who) they will endorse for the Democratic nomination for the US
presidential election in 2004.

The design of their online ballot is very interesting... The first
column asks you to pick a single candidate, and the second column asks
you to pick *all* of the candidates you would *enthusiastically* support
if they were the eventual Democratic nominee. Basically in the first
column they are trying to pick a single winner, and in the second column
they are trying to get an idea of which of the nine candidates fits into
the mainstream of the Move On constituency - and which do not. 

The difference between these two columns is simply the use of Radio
Buttons versus Checkboxes.

In case any of you aren't card-carrying you-know-whats like me, I've
provided a link to a screenshot, saving you the trouble of registering
to vote:
  <http://www.graphpaper.com/stuff/ia/moveon_ballot.gif>

If you do want to vote, here's the official link:
  <http://www.moveonpac.org/moveonpac/>

They will endorse the candidate who gets over 50% of the vote, if there
is one. This is a novel way of allowing members of a political
organization to have an impact on their group's presidential
endorsement. It is thought that this "online primary" might even end up
with many more actual voters than the New Hampshire primary will. This
phenomenon - using the internet to determine real endorsements - is a
precursor to the real thing. It's something to keep an eye on as we move
towards electronic voting for real public offices.

-Cf

[christopher eli fahey]
art: http://www.graphpaper.com
sci: http://www.askrom.com
biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com