The Complexity of the California Recall Election

Abstract

Several problems emerging during the 2003 CA gubernatorial recall election are examined. Two difficulties that affected how voters participated in the recall election are identified: the consolidation of precincts confused some voters & created long waiting times & certain counties' efforts to afford non-English ballots to certain minority language groups were problematized by translation difficulties. Problems regarding the lack of consistency between counties' ballot design & selection of voting machines are then discussed; specific attention is dedicated to exploring the severity of vertical proximity produced by counties' ballot designs & the difficulty of locating candidates on the ballots. Analysis of data from a telephone survey conducted after the recall election that measured voters' (N = 1,500) attitudes toward ballot design revealed that approximately 20% of participants experienced difficulties in locating their candidate of choice & were not confident that their ballots would be counted properly. 2 Tables, 8 References. J. W. Parker