How Bad is North Carolina’s Ballot Flaw? The Numbers Say, Pretty Bad.
Some of you may have read
about North Carolina's
very confusing straight-party voting rules and ballots. If history is any guide, this has the
potential to have a huge impact on the outcome of the presidential contest in North Carolina.
North Carolina, like 14 other states, has an option on the ballot that allows voters to cast a straight-party ballot with one mark. Straight-party voting allows voters to vote quickly and easily, and often results in more votes for down-ballot contests. But it presents some serious usability challenges for voters. And In North Carolina, straight-party voting is particularly tricky: a straight-party vote (counter-intuitively) does not include a vote for president—voters must make a separate mark under the presidential contest (this is in contrast to other states, like Texas, where attempting to vote for President after choosing straight party voting could nullify one's vote).
Perhaps not surprisingly, in the last few elections, North Carolina has had an unusually high number of voters who did not cast votes in the presidential election. Dr. Justin Moore of Duke University estimates 3.15% of voters did not have votes recorded for President in 2000, and 2.57% did not have votes cast for president in 2004.* As we noted in our recent report Better Ballots, having more than 1% of voters fail to cast a vote in the presidential contest is unusual and often an indication of a ballot design flaw or other problem.
It's possible that North Carolina's confusing straight-party voting law and ballots haven't attracted much attention in the past because there hasn't been a close presidential contest in the state in quite some time. But this year, having 2% or more of voters inadvertantly skip the presidential contest may very well have an impact on the outcome. As we've noted before, ballot design flaws tend to disproportionaltely impact three groups, who are likely to be heavily represented in North Carolina's election this year: the poor, the elderly, and new voters.
We've posted a couple of sample ballots from this year's election in North Carolina. One is a paper optical scan ballot being used in Durham County. And one is a "DRE" or electronic ballot being used in Mecklenburg County. North Carolina's optical scan and electronic ballots have some good features that are discussed in Better Ballots, such as shading office titles, that will help voters navigate the ballot. The straight-party voting option, however, could cause thousands of lost votes.
A better optical scan ballot layout would have bumped the straight-party voting information to the second column, to ensure that voters don't miss the presidential contest that is listed first. A better DRE electronic ballot layout would have placed the presidential race by itself on the first screen, followed by the straight-party voting option on the next screen, to ensure that voters are aware that these are separate voting tasks.
The Brennan Center calls on election officials to make sure that North Carolina voters are aware that a straight-party vote does not include a vote for president, and that they must make a mark in the presidential contest for a vote for president to be counted. At the same time, we're working with local voting rights groups in North Carolina to get the word out far and wide.
Update: We just spoke to Professor David Kimball, Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri, St. Louis who notes that until as recently as 2007 (when the law was changed), the only other state that did not include the presidential contest in its straight party voting was South Carolina which—surprise—had similarly high "undervote" rates in the presidential contest in 2000 and 2004.
* Update 10/31/08: Professor David Kimball of the University of Missouri, a leading expert on residual vote rates, had independently estimated that 2.2% of voters in North Carolina had no voter recorded in 2004. The Election Assistance Commission's 2004 Election Day Survey found a nearly 2% undervote rate for president in North Carolina, more than double the national average of 0.87%. According to the survey, it is the second highest undervote rate in the country, after New Mexico, which had major problems with their voting machines that election (they were later replaced) and the third highest residual vote rate (no vote recorded for president) in the country, after New Mexico and Idaho (where a number of counties used punchcards in 2004).
In spite of being both forewarned about the complexity of the ballot and assisted with the voting instructions by another adult, my elderly family in North Carolina recently completed their absentee ballots with a straight-party vote and overlooked the contest for president. Fortunately, these politically savvy elders received and took advice that they re-open and double check their ballots before mailing. Election officials at my early voting site were making a strong effort to call voters’ attention to the ballot design and reduce the occurrence of this oversight. Is NC the only state currently requiring a separate vote for President-VP in addition to a straight party vote option?
Excellent article, thanks. The non-partisan Voter Suppression Wiki has an action alert on this, and the Obama campaign has released a video “The Obama Straight Flip”.
I just voted. The instructions were clear. You must vote for president separately from the straight ticket. It’s even in a separate part of the ballot. Why is that confusing?
I can see how it is confusing, since the major, most important partisan office is not considered part of the party ticket. I do not understand why voting “straight party” should not include the presidential election, although I am sure there is some rational explantion. It is not in the least intuitive. In the interest of removing any barriers to casting a vote, it should be as easy and simple as possible to have your vote counted. This does not pass muster in that respect.
I voted on Tuesday. The election officials gave very clear instructions that the vote for President must be cast separately from the straight party ticket. In addition, there was a Democratic Party volunteer outside the polling place carefully explaining this to voters as they showed up. Reports are that in general the election officials in this town have been great about informing the voters. I agree this this is a terrible and nonsensical design, but fortunately it seems as though poll workers are taking their jobs seriously, at least here in Asheville.
I just attended training yesterday to be a poll worker in Wake County. Our ballot looks a lot like the sample ballot shown for Durham County. The State Board of Elections has passed down a rule that ALL workers passing out ballots must say to the voter the following language: “If you choose to vote a straight party ticket, you must mark your choice for President separately.” This has been NC’s rule for ballots for many, many years, so I really think it’s misleading to call this “voter suppression”. That’s NOT what this is. It may be a dumb rule for ballot design, but it’s not voter suppression. Hyperbole gets us nowhere and makes us look bad when REAL voter suppression occurs.
My apologies to the authors of this blog - it’s not you calling this voter suppression, it’s others linking to your post.
My wife and I voted Wednesday in Jamestown, NC. he Democrat poll worker outside the voting area discussed this thoroughly,
it has been on the TV for nearly two weeks, being brought up repeatedly, and the pollworker that showed us how to do the voting machine explained it thoroughly. Finally, our machines REQUIRE that you go back and check your ballot prior to being able to press the vote butten.
YOUR SAMPLE BALLOTS BELOW ARE COMPLETELY UNREADABLE.
a few days ago i voted in durham and the election staff did indeed indicate that you needed to vote separately for president if you were voting straight ticket. i also have the feeling that if you have difficulty interpreting a ballot, a little elderly lady quietly telling you what to do might not be enough…
but at least i’m happy that we have the paper ballots that you scan in! i heard on npr today about all kinds of problems that people have been having with the diebold machines and even problems with the lever machines. the guy that they had on said that paper + scan was the best method out of all three options because it provided high accountability and little chance for tampering.
and as for why nc has this rule, apparently it’s because as the democratic party was flipping in the 60s/70s, nc democrats wanted to make sure that their own (still conservative) local candidates would not suffer if someone wanted to vote for the GOP candidate for president...so they instituted this brilliant rule to hold on to power for that much longer. maybe the state politicians will re-evaluate this law if nc ends up having irregularities associated with a close call…
Of the voters challenged by this ballot who neglected to cast a vote for president, what percentage intented to vote the Republican nominee and what percentage inteded to vote the Democratic nominee?
My assumption is that it’s probably pretty close and if so, I like having the vote for president held separately from a staight-party ticket. This is a convienient option for those who believe that separate parties controling the legislative and executive branch tend to be more productive and keep us from staying too far from the middle of the road.
I am a poll greeter in Raleigh, NC. There is a reason why the presidential race is separated out. NC is a traditionally red state, but sometimes people want to make a different choice for president. I think this is a good idea. The directions should note this and the poll workers should be required to explain it. But I greeted a voter on Saturday who told me that he was voting a straight Republican ticket except for the top of the ticket. I like the fact that you have that option in our state.