Voting Rights: NY Times Endorses Optical-Scan (Fill-in-the-Oval) Ballots as Best Voting Method

by Eric Jaffa, Tuesday, March 15, 2005

A New York Times editorial last week supported optical-scan ballots for New York state.

These are SAT-style, fill-in-the-oval ballots ("Virtues of Optical-Scan Voting," Mar. 9, 2005):

The best voting technology now available uses optical scanning. These machines work like a standardized test. Voters mark their choices on a paper form, which is then counted by a computer. The paper ballots are kept, becoming the official record of the election. They can be recounted, and if there is a discrepancy between them and the machine count, the paper ballots are the final word.

Optical-scan machines produce a better paper record than touch-screen machines because it is one the voter has actually filled out, not a receipt that the voter must check for accuracy. Optical-scan machines are also far cheaper than touch-screens. Their relatively low cost will be welcomed by taxpayers, of course, but it also has a direct impact on elections. Because touch-screen machines are so expensive, localities are likely to buy too few, leading to long lines at the polls.

The draft bills that the Legislature is working on do not rule out optical-scan voting, but they are far more focused on touch-screen voting. That may be because voting machine manufacturers have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying legislators, or it may simply be that optical-scan equipment has had a lower profile. Whatever the reason, the Legislature owes it to the voters - and the taxpayers - to promote optical-scan voting.

My first choice is publicly hand-counted paper ballots, as Canada uses in its federal elections. But optical-scan ballots are my second choice, largely for the reasons the New York Times gives above.