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January 9, 2012
by Dana Chisnell
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These participants took voting seriously; many said they prepare
ahead, but some said they dont.
Voters dont read instructions (hence, voter education is probably
not the only answer).Its unclear that reading the instructions for
ranked choice voting would help people vote as they intend,
because the instructions are only about how to mark the ballot,
not about how the votes are counted or what the consequences
of ranking are.In addition, the instructions and explanation of
ranked choice voting are separate from the ballot or too far away
from where and how voters make their ranking decisions.
Design did help in conveying the behavior needed that is, the
Maine ballot was more suggestive of the activity of ranking
choices than the Alameda one was. At least one person used the
Maine ballot as a worksheet, and hoped that by doing so she
people who said they were active voters though intent was
usually clear.
I plan to do another, follow-up study in which we have people vote
ranked choice. The idea is to show participants a tested description
of how their rankings are counted, and have them say in their own
words how counting works, and then have them vote again with
this new knowledge.
Here are images of the ballots we used. One was a demonstration
ballot provided by Alameda County. The other was two pages of
the Portland, Maine ballot from November 2011.
The Alameda ballot has a regular ballot on the front, and 3 ranked-choice contests
on the back. using columns for voters to mark their top three choices.
The Portland ballot has a regular ballot on the front, and 15 candidates for mayor
in a ranked choice grid-style on the back.
You can read more about flash testing in Wilder than testing in the
wild: usability testing by flash mob
email: hello@civicdesign.org
phone: 410-921-6811