[mpackard]

When I voted in Gautier, MS I had the strangest thing happen. I was in line behind a woman whos ballot was kicked back out ( optical scanner ) I stole a peek at the ballot and she had voted for W AND Nader. I began to understand at that point why a butterfly ballot may confuse some voters.

[zeaal]

I worked the polls and even though there are posters in all the ballot booths with HOW TO VOTE and a poll worker told each voter to connect the arrow with the special marker provided ... you would not believe the number of ballots that were kicked back out (spoiled) because people CIRCLED the candidates name. eek. When a spoil such as this occurred, our election judge issued the voter a new ballot, retained the spoiled one a special 'Spoiled' envelope and the voter got another chance to do it right. Why are there any spoiled ballots in Ohio? Do they not use optical scanners?