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In a study conducted for USA Today, Hamilton College Government Professor Philip Klinkner found that ballot design and race were the crucial factors in accounting for spoiled ballots in the Florida 2000 election. Klinkner's analysis finds that when you control for various factors, non-straight ballots (butterfly ballots, two-page ballots, multiple column ballots, etc.) had a spoilage rate of approximately three times that of straight ballots (one page, one column)  --2.4% vs. 7.5%. 

According to Klinkner, "For all the controversy last year over punch card voting machines, the type of machine used is much less important than how the ballot was designed.  Instead of spending millions on buying new voting machines, election officials would be better advised to think about how to design simpler and more understandable ballots." 

Klinkner also found that blacks were approximately four times more likely to spoil their ballots than whites (10.2% vs. 2.3%). "A four to one difference in spoiled ballots between blacks and whites is disturbingly large, especially since this takes into account differences in education, income, age, and other factors," he said.  "In a democracy, race shouldn't have the slightest impact on whether one's vote counts or not.  We clearly need to do more to ensure that voting and elections are fair for all Americans."  

 Klinkner is an expert on American politics, including parties and elections, race relations, Congress, and the Presidency.  He has written extensively on a variety of topics related to American politics. Most recently, Klinkner is the co-author of The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of America's Commitment to Racial Equality (University of Chicago Press, 1999), which examines changes in race relations in American politics and history. The book received the 2000 Horace Mann Bond Book Award from Harvard University's Afro-American Studies Department and W.E.B DuBois Institute. 

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