As the Florid­ian ‘but­ter­fly bal­lots’ used in the 2000 U.S. pres­i­den­tial elec­tion showed, poor design can have far-reaching con­se­quences. With new bal­lot design guide­lines now in place, The New York Times iden­ti­fies com­mon design prob­lems found on bal­lots and ways to improve clar­ity and vote accu­racy.

It’s good to know peo­ple are think­ing about issues such as this and striv­ing to improve the problems.

On Nov. 4, most bal­lots will repeat design mis­takes made in pre­vi­ous elec­tions. Many of these errors are avoid­able. This year, the United States Elec­tion Assis­tance Com­mis­sion released bal­lot design guide­lines. Using these guide­lines, we at AIGA devel­oped this fea­ture to iden­tify com­mon design prob­lems and offer improvements.