From the editor: Systems studies of voting systems and elections

Abstract

This collection of articles is presented to the reader in the framework of systems studies of elections as a class of service systems vital for democratic societies. Fundamentals of engineering systems, including those of systems servicing large customers such as electorates in local and national elections, are developed and studied at the Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals, a part of the Engineering Systems Division at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Besides studies of elections as such, studies of national and international political institutions are important for understanding the effectiveness of government. These institutions constitute an inseparable component of democracies, and studies of such institutions should help voters better understand their choices in electing government representatives. Particularly, studying mechanisms for adopting decisions in the legislature and those for interacting between the legislative and executive branches of the government should help electorates evaluate which promises of candidates on the ballot in an election are no more than wishful thinking, creating baseless expectations in voters, and which can be really implemented within boundaries imposed by these mechanisms on the spectrum of possible government decisions and compromises. Understandinghowthenumberofseatsthatapoliticalpartyreceivesinthelegislatureofastatedependsonthenumbers of constituencies and on the share of votes received in an election by candidates representing political parties, as well as understanding to how many seats a state should be intitied in the legislature of a Union of states, is critical for political stability both in countries and in continents. Articles on modeling political institutions constitute a sizable part of those included in this volume. Regularities of the formation of political parties and voter political preferences are as an important factor for studying voter behavior as are features of voting rules. Articles reflecting quantitative studies of these regularities and features are presented in this volume. These studies establish and clarify connections between political and civic matters while emphasizing the difference between the two. Systems studies of elections as such are currently conducted in four major directions. First, studying properties of voting rules and the perception of their fairness by voters is instrumental in making decisions on improving existing rules for determining election outcomes, or replacing these rules with those better in any reasonable sense. Second, developing techniques aimed at providing accuracy in reflecting the will of voters via cast votes and protecting cast votes against manipulation is critical for assuring society that every vote is counted, and these techniques should underlie the design of voting machines and strategies of auditing cast votes. Third, the allocation of voting machines and personnel on Election day that guarantees equal access to polls for every voter and secures service time at the polls within reasonable standards is key to effectively administering elections and making voters confident that every vote counts. Fourth, the quality of methods for evaluating public opinion about the candidates on the ballot and their campaigns, as well as that of methods for forecasting election outcomes, are a critical factor in fairly communicating election information to the voters via the media, in detecting biases of particular media outlets, and in distinguishing facts from political propaganda.