Who am I voting for?
"U.S. Senate candidate James Webb's last name has been cut off on part of the electronic ballot used by voters in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville because of a computer glitch that also affects other candidates with long names, city officials said yesterday." [washington post]
The problem stems from a font increase on the summary page of the voting machines in question. The names appear correctly on the actual voting screen, but when voters are given the opportunity to review their votes, the names of many of the candidates have been truncated. James Webb will appear only as "James H. 'Jim' ". James Hursyz, who is running against James Moran in the house, has had his name shortened to "James T. 'Jim' ". Republican Candidate George Allen's name has not been truncated, leaving him able to take full advantage of his name recognition. His party affiliation (Rep.) HAS been cut off, but in the current climate of constantly falling Republican approval, this might not be such a bad thing for his re-election hopes.
What's being done about this? The Secretary of State of the Virginia Board of Elections has committed to having the problem fixed by the 2007 election. This year, apparently, there is nothing that can be done. Posters will be put up in voting booths to address voter confusion. Because posters explaining a situation are always better than actually fixing the situation itself.
We need to let the election board in Virginia know that this problem needs to be fixed by this election - not the next one. What could we do? The first step ought to be to fix the summary page by reducing the font-increase that caused all these problems. If this can't be done for technical reasons, then the state should be providing paper ballots with the names of all the candidates displayed in full.
This is all the more reason for there to be monitors at polling sites throughout the state - to make sure that every vote goes to the right candidate, and no voters get confused.
UPDATE: We're working on this, and are in contact with the election board (see UPDATE)
The problem stems from a font increase on the summary page of the voting machines in question. The names appear correctly on the actual voting screen, but when voters are given the opportunity to review their votes, the names of many of the candidates have been truncated. James Webb will appear only as "James H. 'Jim' ". James Hursyz, who is running against James Moran in the house, has had his name shortened to "James T. 'Jim' ". Republican Candidate George Allen's name has not been truncated, leaving him able to take full advantage of his name recognition. His party affiliation (Rep.) HAS been cut off, but in the current climate of constantly falling Republican approval, this might not be such a bad thing for his re-election hopes.
What's being done about this? The Secretary of State of the Virginia Board of Elections has committed to having the problem fixed by the 2007 election. This year, apparently, there is nothing that can be done. Posters will be put up in voting booths to address voter confusion. Because posters explaining a situation are always better than actually fixing the situation itself.
We need to let the election board in Virginia know that this problem needs to be fixed by this election - not the next one. What could we do? The first step ought to be to fix the summary page by reducing the font-increase that caused all these problems. If this can't be done for technical reasons, then the state should be providing paper ballots with the names of all the candidates displayed in full.
This is all the more reason for there to be monitors at polling sites throughout the state - to make sure that every vote goes to the right candidate, and no voters get confused.
UPDATE: We're working on this, and are in contact with the election board (see UPDATE)
posted by nathaniel at 10:40 AM
7 Comments:
Why are these problems popping up in Dem areas--NoVa and Charlottesville? Suspicious.
I never thought I would be happy to be voting as a Democrat in Southwestern VA...at least I know I'll be able to figure out the voting machines!
Or at least I hope, which is why lawyers from ANYWHERE in VA should volunteer as election monitors on Nov. 7!
Who made these machines? We should follow that lead as well.
Hi VaIs4Voters... What will/can you do regarding the truncation of Webb's name on the electronic summary ballot in Charlottesville, Alexandria and Falls Church? What's the recourse?
Hey Renarf -
We're on it. Some of the Webb campaign folks are in touch with the State Board of Elections, and posters are going up at polling sites walking voters through the process. There's an update post on the blog about it, and we'll keep you posted as we find out more.
Stay tuned, and ready to fight...
It's a Texas company that makes the machines... it affect's the Democrat's name in Democratic regions.... hmmm...
Instead of waiting until 2007, how about list the candidates' last names first? Or, require George F. Allen to spell out his middle name (Felix).
These are not difficult solutions to come up with.
Hey Johnny,
any change made the ballot (even just changing the order in which the names are displayed) requires
(by state law) that the ballot get re-tested on the voting machines. The testing process would take (at best) two or three weeks to get through, which we don't have time for at this point. Beyond that, the individual voting machines, which are already at their polling places, would each have to be loaded with the updated software, even for a simple change.
It seems like it should be easy, but sometimes technology does the opposite of making our lives simpler ;-)
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