Comments on: November 2006 Undervote Analysis

By: DRE and Optical Scan Undervote Comparison | Blog - Champaign County Clerk, IL - Mark Shelden

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:23:42 +0000

[...] interest of the state is that the law might prevent unintentional undervotes. I believe our previous research already destroys that argument. But there is yet another argument that I haven’t yet [...]

By: Undervotes and the AccuVote | Blog - Champaign County Clerk, IL - Mark Shelden

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:05:09 +0000

[...] at every level are broke, it is remarkable that the state would saddle the voters with this unnecessary, unconstitutional, and costly [...]

By: PATTY LYCAN

PATTY LYCAN — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:41:04 +0000

I like the no vote option, however; this would not work in a vote for up to 3 candidates.

What are you going to do about explaining this to the voter?

Patty Lycan

By: Champaign County Clerk

Champaign County Clerk — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:50:17 +0000

The no vote option does exist in at least one other state, New Jersey. I think elected officials are less than enthusiastic about this option as it doesn’t look good when lots of people pick “No vote” or “None of the Above”. Some might argue “None of the Above” might win a race or two.

By: Ann

Ann — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:00:57 +0000

Why isn’t there an effort to make “no vote” an option on each item to be voted on? With a required vote, including the choice for a ‘no vote’ will always catch 100% of undervotes. I don’t get it?

By: Becky Kraemer

Becky Kraemer — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:25:53 +0000

Interesting analysis, Mark.
Unfortunately, these ballots look familiar; especially those with something other than a darkened oval and those with the same name written in on the write-in line.
At least for the write-in line we were able to help eliminate that issue with the 61 day write-in filing deadline. I’ve never had a ballot with that detailed of a message as the last one! What a hoot.

Nice effort. I hope it will prove beneficial to our need to eliminate the partial undervote flag. My equipment is not prepared. Nor has there been any effort to push for retesting that I am aware of.

It is important to note that your jurisdiction’s equipment could technically accommodate the flag for part of the ballot; and, yet, you know and have conveyed the message that the secrecy of the ballot will be compromised, voters will be intimidated and “fair and equal” elections/ballots among all candidates seems to be usurped.