Sorry guys, I just don't get it. The county where the problematic butterfly ballot was used is heavily Democratic. Why would the Democratic election officials in that county have assumed that the vote would be close and tried to obfuscate the issue? Their pre-election assumption would more likely have been something along the lines of "We must make it very easy for our Democrats to vote and vote correctly."

If we were talking about a county with a fairly close split, it might be a different matter, but Dade County (is that the right one) is supposedly about 60%-70% Democrat.

Re the "same as they've used before" issue: not quite. Indeed the butterfly ballot has been used for a number of years in Florida. The specific ballot that is claimed to have confused people used a different arrangement of it than has been used before. (One that incidentally turns out to have been illegal on its face.)

This was done, according to the official who designed the ballot, in an attempt to make the ballot EASIER to read. With the large number of Presidential candidates on the ballot, keeping all of them on one side of the ballot page made the names be very small. She was able to make the names larger by putting candidates on both sides of the open butterfly ballot page.

Indeed this is an example of extraordinarily stupid design. And the lack of testing is another example of stupidity. But to suggest that this is part of a "liberal plot" is equally nonsense. Think about all the government workers you know, regardless of party or ideology. Do you REALLY think the people who tend to get such jobs are at the top end of the bell curve?

This is NOT to say that everyone who works for governments (of whatever country) is stupid. I know several exceptions personally. But all of those exceptions agree (indeed, insist) that MOST people who work for governments are this stupid.

BB,
NightWing

P.S. Vote NO on butterflies! *L*