Butterfly voting is a punched card system where candidates and issues appear on both sides with numbered punch marks down the middle. It caused controversy in the 2000 US presidential election in Florida due to its confusing design, which led to misaligned arrows and misinterpreted votes. The layout favored the Republican candidate, leading to accusations of election fraud. The design has not been widely used since, and many districts have switched to electronic voting machines.
A butterfly card is a type of punched card in which the candidates and issues appear on both sides, with a single row of numbered punch marks running down the middle. This design can be confusing, especially for troubled or vision-impaired voters. Butterfly voting became a topic of intense conversation in the United States in 2000 when it was used in some regions of Florida; some argue that the butterfly vote determined the outcome of that year’s disputed presidential election.
Before we delve into the specifics of butterfly voting, it may be helpful to explain ballots in general and punch cards in particular. A ballot paper is any type of system used to record votes in an election. People have used ballot papers of various shapes for a long time, with punched cards emerging in the mid-twentieth century. A punch card lists the candidates and issues with corresponding numbered marks. To cast a vote, the voter uses a stylus to punch a hole through the corresponding mark.
The butterfly vote controversy centered around the design, which was quite unusual. Typically, a single page of a punch card contains both the candidates and issues to be voted on and spaces for the punch. In the case of the butterfly vote, the candidates were spread over two pages and the punching spaces were centered in the middle of the two open pages. In theory, the arrows should have been pointing from each candidate to the corresponding space that needed to be marked, but minor mishaps of misregistration could cause the arrows to become misaligned, making it difficult to figure out which hole should be punched.
Florida’s infamous butterfly vote featured two pages of presidential candidates. The first candidate on the front page was a Republican, and the second was a Democrat, leading people to believe that the second matching hole should be used to vote for the Democrat. Indeed, the second hole corresponded to a candidate from the Reform party, who led the list on the second page of the ballot. As a result, many people either voted for the wrong candidate by accident, or started punching and then realized their mistake, resulting in a dimple or hanging chad which made vote counting difficult, as the the voter’s intention was unclear.
In Florida, butterfly votes were not used statewide, and many critics noted that they were used in traditionally Democratic areas, causing election results to be skewed, as Democratic voters voted for the reform candidate rather than the the Democrat they thought they were voting for. Because the butterfly ballot layout favored the Republican presidential candidate, some people accused Florida of trying to fake election results. Whether or not these allegations were true, the design has not been widely used since, as it was clearly too confusing for voters; many districts have also switched to electronic voting machines, rather than punch cards.
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