The world looked on in amazement as the man who lost the popular vote both country-wide and in the state of Florida becomes President of the United States.   The ballot at the centre of controversy in the Florida recount came from Palm Beach County.  Some voters claim that the 'butterfly' design confused them, and that while they attempted to vote for Gore, they mistakenly ended up voting for Pat Buchanan.

Not only does it appear that perhaps 4,000 people made the error of punching the second hole on the ballot in the mistaken belief that the second hole represented the second candidate, more than 19,000 people made the error of punching both the second and third holes, since both were directly alongside their candidate.  These 19,000 ballots were disqualified.

It's easy enough now to see the problems with the design.  Obviously,  the design was not user-tested before being put to use - and  23,000 voters' wishes may have been discounted. 

Why were the designers unable to see the problem, even without testing?  

Perhaps because they were not users, they were designers.  As such, they were interested in all 10 candidates on the ballot (plus space for a write in), and they saw all ten candidates.  They viewed the ballot as a 2X6 staggered matrix with a line of buttons in between the two sides.

The voters saw things very differently.  They were not interested in 10 candidates. They were interested in one candidate, the one they wanted to vote for.  Their entire focus was on finding that candidate and punching the hole next to his or her name.  In the case of Gore, that required scanning only two names down in the first column.  There was never any reason at all for Gore voters to even see the right hand column, and we now have 23,000 pieces of evidence that they, indeed, didn't. 

Article based on a news item at www.quailwood.com.   Graphic by South Florida Sun-Sentinel.