Faced with a November election that will surely bring out a record voter turnout, local state and election boards are paying heed to a new study that suggests ballot redesigns are necessary to ensure that famous mistakes of previous elections are avoided.

Problems with confusing paper ballots in 2002, absentee ballots in 2004 and touch-screen ballots in 2006 led thousands of voters to skip over key races or make mistakes that invalidated their votes, according to the study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

"In the big election meltdowns … where thousands of votes were lost, ballot design was the primary cause," says Lawrence Norden of the Brennan Center.

Voting officials in Ohio, a swing state, are scheduled to be schooled by some "ballot design experts," who are raking in the big bucks this year, I'm sure, in order to avoid some common mistakes in the fall. [USAT]