>> From: Forest Simmons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Subject: Re: [EM] Advantages of CR style ballots
>> > >> Each voter marks a smudge to the right of each candidate's >> > >> name. The smudgier the smudge, the higher the rating. The >> > >> mechanical smudge reader automatically calibrates to each >> > >> ballot by giving the smudgiest smudge on the ballot a >> > >> rating of 100 percent, while zeroing out the lightest >> > >> smudge (or lack thereof). >> > >> > Cool. We could let pets fill out our ballots. Or maybe the >> > dog (people person) votes for candidates and cat (introvert) >> > does the propositions. If it's a choice between an >> > advertising agency and a dog, I'll go with the dog. >> They say that even cockroaches can sense impending >> earthquakes. I wonder if they can tell which candidate is >> least likely to precipitate a nuclear war. I'm constrained by the subject of this group from expressing my opinions of the campaign process and cognitive processes that determine voter behavior, so I won't have a lot to say about cockroaches. Perhaps only that if there _are_ cockroaches (in the generic sense, at any rate) voting, it would be good to make sure that most possible configurations of a ballot are invalid, so that voters who are confused, or who think the ballot is a coloring book, or who let their children mark the ballot for them, won't end up voting randomly.