What your range voting ballot might look like with different voting machines

Here is what the sample ballot on the main page might look like with various, lower- or higher-tech, kinds of voting machines or schemes. Note that our voter intentionally is not expressing an opinion about Ross Perot. (You can click here for 0-9 range and here for 0-99 range to learn about the theoretical underpinnings of how this works.)

Paper and pen human-counted ballots, totaled manually: (try demo)

Please fill in every box with a single digit (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, or 9) or an intentional blank, indicated by "x." Advise giving your favorite candidate 99 and your least-liked one 00.
Candidate > ? ?




EISENHOWER, Dwight > 6 0
HARDING, Warren G. > 1 0
HITLER, Adolf > 0 0
JACKSON, Andrew > 1 0
JOHNSON, Lyndon > 5 0
LINCOLN, Abraham > 9 9
NIXON, Richard M. > 0 5
PEROT, H. Ross > x x
REAGAN, Ronald W. > 1 0
ROOSEVELT, Franklin D. > 5 0
ROOSEVELT, Theodore > 6 5
WASHINGTON, George > 7 5





  Computerized gizmo with display screen:

Range ballot






Optical scan machines (single digit range voting, range 0-9): (try demo)

Fill in one numbered box in each candidate's row (or none, if you intentionally wish to express no opinion about that candidate). Advise giving your favorite candidate 9 and your least-liked 0.
Candidate > Punch one number per row.
EISENHOWER, Dwight > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
HARDING, Warren G. > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
HITLER, Adolf > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
JACKSON, Andrew > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
JOHNSON, Lyndon > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
LINCOLN, Abraham > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
NIXON, Richard M. > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
PEROT, H. Ross > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
REAGAN, Ronald W. > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
ROOSEVELT, Franklin D. > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
ROOSEVELT, Theodore > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
WASHINGTON, George > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Mechanical lever machines (single digit RV):

Same picture as for "optical scan machines," except that the blue squares now denote, not a filled-in optical scanner blob, but rather, a depressed lever!

Punch card machines (single digit range voting):

Same picture as for "optical scan machines," except that the blue squares now denote, not a filled-in optical scanner blob, but rather, the place you punch a hole in the card with your stylus! (Don't leave any "hanging chads"!)

Incidentally, with punch cards (or computer displays) we could imagine continuum analog range voting by just using the horizontal location of the punched hole on an 0-99 horizontal scale, as your vote. That would be extremely simple, but I worry that analog votes would be more susceptible than digital (and hence unambiguous) votes to intentional misinterpretation.





Optical scan, Lever, and Punch card machines (two-digit range voting, range 0-99):

Fill in one numbered box in each candidate's tens-row & one numbered box in each candidate's units-row (or leave them both blank, if you intentionally wish to express no opinion about that candidate). Advise giving your favorite candidate 99 and your least-liked 00.
Candidate > Punch one number per row.
EISENHOWER, Dwight (tens place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
" " (units place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
HARDING, Warren G. (tens place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
" " (units place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
HITLER, Adolf (tens place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
" " (units place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
JACKSON, Andrew (tens place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
" " (units place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
JOHNSON, Lyndon (tens place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
" " (units place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
LINCOLN, Abraham (tens place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
" " (units place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
NIXON, Richard M. (tens place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
" " (units place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
PEROT, H. Ross (tens place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
" " (units place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
REAGAN, Ronald W. (tens place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
" " (units place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
ROOSEVELT, Franklin D. (tens place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
" " (units place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
ROOSEVELT, Theodore (tens place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
" " (units place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
WASHINGTON, George (tens place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
" " (units place) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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