[EM] Advantages of CR style ballots

[Anthony Simmons]

>> From: Forest Simmons <fsimmons at pcc.edu>
>> Subject: Re: [EM] Advantages of CR style ballots

>> > >> Each voter marks a smudge to the right of each candidate's
>> > >> name.  The smudgier the smudge, the higher the rating. The
>> > >> mechanical smudge reader automatically calibrates to each
>> > >> ballot by giving the smudgiest smudge on the ballot a
>> > >> rating of 100 percent, while zeroing out the lightest
>> > >> smudge (or lack thereof).
>> >
>> > Cool.  We could let pets fill out our ballots.  Or maybe the
>> > dog (people person) votes for candidates and cat (introvert)
>> > does the propositions.  If it's a choice between an
>> > advertising agency and a dog, I'll go with the dog.

>> They say that even cockroaches can sense impending
>> earthquakes.  I wonder if they can tell which candidate is
>> least likely to precipitate a nuclear war.

I'm constrained by the subject of this group from
expressing my opinions of the campaign process and cognitive
processes that determine voter behavior, so I won't have a
lot to say about cockroaches.  Perhaps only that if there
_are_ cockroaches (in the generic sense, at any rate) voting,
it would be good to make sure that most possible
configurations of a ballot are invalid, so that voters who
are confused, or who think the ballot is a coloring book, or
who let their children mark the ballot for them, won't end up
voting randomly.