Connecticut plans to replace its old-fashioned lever mechanical voting machines with optical-scan paper ballots, in time for the November 7, 2006 election. This is good news for minor party and independent candidates in Connecticut. The Connecticut lever machines uses the party row format, with the major parties occupying the upper rows. That type of ballot format encourages voters to overlook the “less important” candidates in the lower rows.

But the optical scan ballot format is always an “office-group” format. All of the candidates for the most important office are in a list, and the voter chooses one candidate or, perhaps, chooses no one. The voter’s eye then goes to the list of candidates for the second-most important office on the ballot, and the voter concentrates on the list of candidates for that office. With this type of ballot format, the voter for minor party and independent candidates is generally higher, for the less important offices.