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How thick are we talking here?
Are these thick lines and text for blind
people? Are they state requirements?
Thick race boundaries and text next
to the timing marks can reduce the image we see on the timing marks if a ballot
left or right shifts. Thick race boundaries and text next to voting ovals
can affect scanning of voting marks, i.e., increase in invalid
marks.
0.020 inches has always been the max
for race boundaries and those has been shifted left or right on the ballot image
away from the voting positions to respect the 0.250 inch boundary on the voting
position.
If it's a must here are some
suggestions.
Place any thick black line or
text at least 1/2 a voting column clear away from any timing mark, voting
position, diagnostic mark, or ID mark, then the reader wouldn't care how thick
you made those black lines and text. But then you drastically reduce the
available area for race and candidate text. Kind of a rock and a hard
place situation.
Sacrifice candidate text space and
you can have thick black lines and text.
Sacrifice thick black lines and text
and you can have more available candidate text space.
Sacrifice neither and you can have
increased ballot rejection rates.
We could go the multi-color
route. Print the race boundaries and text in an reader-invisible color
(Pantone 130U or Pantone 032U) and then you can print any thickness you want,
but it would have to be on white paper stock. Colored paper stock would
affect the ink color.
Or we could throw caution to the
wind, and let any body do anything they want on the ballots, and then let
the chips fall where they may. But that's not a constructive
suggestion.
If there are any other ideas, please
feel free to comment. I've already got dibs on the "design a new
optical scan system" idea. So come up with something else more
creative.
Ian
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