Confusing Ballot Interface -- Bad Interaction Design?

Voting in California-- you have to complete the arrow. It's a terrible Interaction Design decision!

The first time I saw this, I had no idea what was going on, usually arrows imply movement or relationships between what's on one side and what's on the other -- not the case here at all, as you can see. Sorry about the horrible photo, I took it with my iPhone in the polling booth, which was in someone's garage and not very well lit!

Here's a good article on the subject from slate.com