After discovering the conflict of interest in the forms contest, we scrambled to find a judge. Ultimately, Adobe came through and brought us Stephen Buckley host of OpenGovRadio and blogger at http://www.ustransparency.com. Here’s what Stephen had to say about the winner, and why he picked who he picked:

Clay,

I choose the “Redesigned Passport Form” as the entry that best meets your criteria (below).

BTW: My second choice was “Redesigned Medicare Request for Payment Form”.

Initially, I thought that the improved Medicare form would have a larger “potential impact” because it is used more often than a Passport form. (My experienced physiotherapist mother owned a rehab clinic, and my wife owned a travel agency.)

But then, I decided that the Passport format was larger in the “potential impact the adoption of the new form could have” since, as the originator explains, it could be the model for similarly-constructed forms that citizens access and complete at a “Government Filing Center”:

Other government forms can be redesigned using the above criteria, with a consistent look all across. There can be 1 main “Government Filing Center” website where people can fill out any gov. form quickly, and securely. This also saves time on the other side as a gov. official no longer has to scan the paper forms or manually enter them into a computer. Imagine having a secure profile already set up (as an option), so that when you pull up any government form, much of the form is already filled in.

So it looks like the win still stands. Congratulations goes to the winner, and thank you very much Mr. Buckley for stepping in and helping us out.