<x-flowed>For a recent piece on ballot rotation and the use of social science in
election law disputes:
R. Michael Alvarez, Betsy Sinclair, And Richard L. Hasen. How Much Is
Enough? The "Ballot Order Effect" and the Use of Social Science
Research in Election Law Disputes, Election Law Journal, Volume 5,
Number 1, 40-56 (2006). available (if you have a subscription) at:
<http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/elj.2006.5.40>
While I should know which vendors election technologies support ballot
rotation at what level, I do not. It is merely a matter of
distributing rotated ballot styles to each polling place or
subdivision for the rotation. Voting systems vendors are required to
submit as part of the Technical Data Package required for federal
certification a statement that specifies whether not they support
ballot rotation (so that the testing laboratories can test this
feature). A call to the vendor in question (Diebold for GA) or a
FOIA/Public Records/etc. request would be determinative.
However, you'd probably get farther by finding a set of jurisdictions
that use the same technology (like all of Maryland for the Diebold
AccuVote-TS (R6) which is used in GA) that also have ballot rotation
requirements and have run a rotated election on the equipment in the
past.
Joe
On 6/26/06, Roy Schotland
<schotlan@law.georgetown.edu> wrote:
Question, on behalf of a Georgian who hopes for a change from their
ballots' strict alphabetic-order listing-- Do you know of any
experience, or views, that may be helpful to her point:
"Now that we vote entirely on computer touch-screens, I see no
reason why each ballot couldn't have a different order."
I have no info about Georgia's general experience with their
alphabetic listing, but do know (from earlier exchanges with other
Georgians) that of their 19 appellate judges, elected statewide, the
four who first went on the bench by election as opposed to by
appointment are named Andrews, Barnes, Bernes, and Blackburn.
--
Roy A. Schotland
Professor
Georgetown U. Law Ctr.
600 New Jersey Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001
phone 202/662-9098
fax 662-9680 or -9444