[E-voting] E-voting/e-counting chaos in scotland (fwd)

[Dr J Pelan]

On Wed, 16 May 2007, Louise Ferguson wrote:

> Ballots for e-counting are designed for machine scanning, not for people 
> to be able to use easily. Just as different types of marks may be more 
> machine-readable than others, different designs may be more or less 
> usable than others, *by people*. Machine-reading adds more complications 
> to the existing ballot design issue.

I don't agree that machine reading detracts, by necessity, the voters 
ability to complete the ballot. Nor would I think it possible to so 
clearly lay the blame for spoilt ballots at the door of counting machines, 
directly or indirectly. A majority of people have had no problems and it 
appears, as it so often does, that it is a lack of voter education that is 
the real issue.

A recent commentator remarked along the lines of, "Do you want people that 
can't fill in a simple form determining who runs the country?" but that's 
beyond the scope of this discussion.

--
John P.