Better Ballots Five Years Overdue
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
With the 2016 presidential election season underway, it appears all but certain that New Yorkers’ all-important votes next year will, yet again, be cast using badly outdated ballots. New York began using optical scanners to process ballots with the 2010 elections, yet the law still requires our ballots to be designed to work with the old lever machines.
The result: Ballots that are confusing and difficult to read. The layout does not make clear to voters how to vote for the candidates they wish to support, and instructions printed in tiny fonts are difficult to read. No one should lose their vote because they can’t read the ballot.
The 2014 midterm election ballot perfectly illustrates some of these problems. A voter wishing to support candidates on the Working Families Party line might mistakenly cast a vote for Rob Astorino on the Stop Common Core line, not for Andrew Cuomo who appeared on the WFP line in the box just above. Similarly, a voter intending to vote for Rob Astorino on the Conservative party line might easily vote for Michael McDermott on the Libertarian party line instead. It is no wonder that a substantial number of ballots are invalidated each election due to undervotes and overvotes.
The confusion does not stop there. Placing ballot initiative questions on the back of the ballot creates substantial problems for voters who do not know to turn it over. Instructions on how to vote on proposals should be clear and printed in large, legible font.
There are already modern design standards for ballots used in other jurisdictions with optical scanners. New York should act now to ensure these simple ideas are used on our ballots, too.
Better ballot design was one of the key reforms pushed by NYC Votes and the 100 concerned citizens that joined us for #VoteBetterNY Day in Albany on April 22. Our volunteers advocated specifically for the Voter Friendly Ballot Act (A3389), sponsored by Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh. This bill would set clear and modern design standards for better, more readable ballots. Significantly, the Voter Friendly Ballot Act has passed the Assembly unanimously three times, yet the Senate has failed to act.
New Yorkers need better ballots right away. If lawmakers do not act before the legislative session ends, it may be too late to make changes to the law for 2016. We can’t let another presidential election year go with voters using antiquated ballots. It’s time to bring ballot design into the 21st century so that every eligible voter can cast a ballot that counts.