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Politics & Government

NYC Ballots Get Font Size Increase

Board of Elections hears complaints, bumps up tiny 7-point font.

The city’s Board of Elections voted on Tuesday to increase the font size on its ballots for the general election in November after many New Yorkers complained that it was difficult to read the names of the candidates during this month’s primary election, according to the New York Times.

The candidates’ names will now be printed in a nine-point font, up from the previous seven-point font that was used.

Juan Carlos Polanco, a commissioner on the Board of Elections, told the Times that the nine-point font was as large as the names could be and still fit.

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According to the board, state law required uniform font sizes across ballots, so there was not too much leeway. Ballot designers, though, discovered that if longer names were broken up across two lines of type, larger letters could fit.

The issue was a big one with voters, starting in 2010. Some legislators, including state Sen. Joe Addabbo, introduced legislation on the state level as well to increase ballot size.

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"This was the most common complaint I heard on the campaign trail from my people," Addabbo said in 2011.

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