From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: Madison Botches School Vote Absentee Ballots

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Madison Botches School Vote Absentee Ballots

May 21, 2005

Some 2,200 absentee ballots already sent out to voters for Tuesday's school funding referendums in Mad-town, er, Madison, Wisconsin, are in error. Grave error.

...more than 2,200 absentee ballots that have already been issued could be challenged in court, district officials said. Assistant Superintendent Roger Price said he discovered the errors Friday while he was proofreading an election notice to be published in local newspapers. Two of the three referendum questions did not include changes the School Board adopted March 28, he said.
...One incorrect ballot item asks voters to authorize permanently raising the operating budget in increments of $7.4 million in each of the next three years. The correct proposal calls for one permanent increase of $7.4 million starting next year.

On a maintenance referendum question, the wording fails to mention that part of the requested money could be spent on technology and instructional equipment.

State Elections Board executive director Kevin Kennedy said a judge could ultimately be asked to rule on the intent of the absentee voters if the election is decided by fewer than 2,200 votes.

I'll look forward to the school district's identification of the individual(s) responsible for the error, and appropriate disciplinary action.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at May 21, 2005 02:24 PM

Comments:

The problems in Madison are easier than the ones we face in the Rossi contest.

Most of the social science literature I have read indicates that most voters have only the dimmest notion of what they are voting on--more taxes or not; more spending or not. If the judges require more specificity than that, I think they are sailing their barks into Neverland.

Here, however, there are some really puzzling questions about what degree of negligence constitutes fraud, and what quantity of error spoils an election. No research I am aware of answers those questions.

Posted by: Tom Rekdal at May 21, 2005 05:19 PM

That type of drastic error is not a simple mistake. Someone assumed (in some cases correctly) that a majority of voters are too stupid to read what they vote on, and those same people assumed that anyone that discovered the error would not report it. That's the liberal uneducated world we live in. Big question, How many people (in charge of the election) read the ballot questions and how many reported the error?

Posted by: Scrapiron at May 21, 2005 06:23 PM

It's important to note that the error makes it appear as if the school district is asking for more money than it is actually asking for. That is, anyone who would vote yes on the wrong ballot would definitely still vote yes on the right ballot.

It has come out that the school district gave the wrong copy of the question to the printer. They realized their mistake and gave a corrected copy before the ballots were printed. However the printer grabbed the wrong copy and proceeded to print an incorrect ballot.

In any case, if the difference is more than 2200 votes, nothing will matter.

Posted by: Al at May 23, 2005 10:12 PM

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