New and unfamiliar equipment may be used for many elderly voting in today’s elections. As a result, electronic voting and associated tutorials have been made available in some places to ease the process. The elderly were the most likely to become confused during the presidential election in 2000, according to several studies.

The Verified Voting Foundation (VVF) says it strives to ease this confusion by publishing easy-to-read online guides to assist voters when they make their choice. The “Voters’ Guide to Electronic Voting” (http://verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=5133) provides information about local voting machines and tips on how to avoid voting technology problems.

The guide provides information specific to the voter’s locale. For example, in California, voters have the option of paper ballots if preferred over electronic voting machines. In Hawaii and Washington, D.C., there is also the option of a paper optical-scan ballot instead of the voting machine.