Bad ballot design is confusing some voters

If you’re in New York or other states that use “fusion voting,” you may notice that presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are listed multiple times, under different parties on the 2016 election ballot. Fusion voting is designed to allow people to vote for a candidate under their preferred party (i.e., Independent, Green, Working Families, etc.) 

And, to add to the confusion, states have different rules about what happens if you pick the same candidate on multiple lines (for example, picking Trump on both the Conservative and Republican lines). In New York, if you do that, the party “that appears first on the ballot” gets the credit, per law. In Oregon, the vote is “attributed to the party that the candidate is a member of.” And in Connecticut…well, just read the text of the law. It’s too hard to explain.

On Twitter, voters are bemoaning the confusing election ballots.

Wow that’s a confusing ballot. https://t.co/NCfEflWZfP

— J&CHenry for Trump (@jimhen68) November 8, 2016

@terrygoldman Yes, it is confusing! They shouldn’t list the Presidential Candidates multiple times in the same section of the ballot.

— Corbin C. Wong (@Dr_CorbinCWong) November 8, 2016

NYC ballot is confusing and looks like a test. So I got nervous and scolded myself for not having studied.

— Justin Crowell (@JustinHCrowell) November 8, 2016

That ballot is so confusing! https://t.co/vZ1n4kSFbH

— HillaryClinton411 (@hillclinton411) November 8, 2016

RR