Election-Campaign Law

More on Franklin County, OH residual votes

By Charles Stewart III

Thad’s posting below points to a newspaper article that illustrates that in some cases we haven’t come very far from Florida 2000.  I’m hoping that the following paragraphs misrepresents what Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said in defense of paper ballots, since it seems to be defending a voting method because it allows over- and under-votes:

But Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said comparing the total number of unrecorded votes on paper ballots against those cast on electronic machines presents a misleading picture.

When voters use paper ballots, they are not alerted when they intentionally or mistakenly leave a race blank _ an “undervote” _ or select more than one candidate for one race _ an “overvote.”

When using electronic voting machines, voters aren’t allowed to “overvote” when submitting a ballot, and they are notified when casting an “undervote.”

In addition, one oddity in the Franklin County returns is that there are more overvotes than undervotes using the paper methods — both the absentee voting and the paper ballots cast on Election Day. This is not unhead-of.  For instance, in 2004, 10 of Florida’s 67 counties reported more overvotes than undervotes on absentee ballots.  But, from what I’ve seen, it is much more typical for undervotes to dominate overvotes.  If Franklin County is interested in making sure that paper ballot users have their votes counted as intended, it’s important to understand why their voters seem more prone to overvote, whether the paper ballot was cast absentee or in-precinct.

Full post as published by Election Updates on November 17, 2008 (boomark / email).