Editing Ballot (section)

==Design==
Ballot design can aid or inhibit clarity in an election. Poor designs lead to confusion and potentially chaos if large numbers of voters spoil or mismark a ballot. The "butterfly ballot" used in the [[2000 United States presidential election in Florida|Palm Beach County, Florida 2000 U.S. presidential election]] (a ballot paper that has names down both sides, with a single column of punch holes in the center, which has been likened to a [[maze]]<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Associated Press
| title = State: Ballot display revives chads, chaos of bungled election
| work = Saint Petersburg Times Online Tampa Bay
| access-date = 2014-10-26
| date = 2003-07-14
| url = http://www.sptimes.com/2003/07/14/news_pf/State/Ballot_display_revive.shtml
| archive-date = 2014-09-05
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140905020156/http://www.sptimes.com/2003/07/14/news_pf/State/Ballot_display_revive.shtml
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Statement of Commissioner Victoria Wilson |work=Voting Irregularities in Florida During the 2000 Presidential Election, www.usccr.gov |access-date=2014-10-26 |url=http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/vote2000/report/wilson.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721063634/http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/vote2000/report/wilson.htm |archive-date=July 21, 2011 }}</ref>) led to widespread allegations of mismarked ballots.<ref>Dershowitz, ''[[Supreme Injustice|Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000]]'', pp. 22–28. {{ISBN|9780195148275}}</ref> The ballot was designed to have a larger print, making it easier for the elderly voters of Palm Beach to read, but instead, it led to the names of candidates being alternately offset, with lines on both sides of each punch hole, creating confusion.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cheng |first1=Alicia |title=This is What Democracy Looked Like |date=2020 |publisher=Princeton Architectural Press |location=New York |isbn=9781616898878 |page=7}}</ref> The butterfly ballot is credited with tipping the 2000 U.S. presidential election to George W. Bush.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Butterfly Did It: The Aberrant Vote for Buchanan in Palm Beach County, Florida |url=https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/butterfly-did-it-aberrant-vote-buchanan-palm-beach-county-florida |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=Stanford Graduate School of Business |language=en}}</ref> 

<gallery class="center" widths="200">
File:Kalpi israel 18.JPG|Ballots may be tickets rather than forms, as in [[Israel]].
File:Butterfly Voters View.jpg|Perspective view of a 2000 [[Palm Beach County, Florida]] "butterfly ballot"
File:Butterfly Ballot, Florida 2000 (large).jpg|Top view of the same 2000 Florida "butterfly ballot"
File:Bulleten Gosduma 2011.jpg|[[Russia]]n ballot to the [[2011 Russian legislative election|2011 State Duma elections]] with a list of [[Political parties in Russia|political parties]]
</gallery>