Multiple Voting Research Articles

VOTEMAT: A Blockchain Based Voting System

This study aims to show that a secure, trustable and immutable voting system can be established with Blockchain technology. Decentralized structure of the Blockchain excludes the central authority and provides transparency. Moreover, its cryptographic functions enable secure transactions. Therefore, the operation is prevented from potential frauds, such as multiple votes, fake vote attempts, and fraudulent vote counts. The proposed method, VOTEMAT, covers both electronic voting and paper ballot as a complete solution. A mobile application and a Website, connected to Ethereum private Blockchain network, were developed for the voters who prefer to cast their votes remotely. It is also possible to vote in the voting centres via the mobile device or paper ballot placed in the vote boxes; but these votes are also recorded in the same Blockchain and equally secure. For the remote users, a two-step authentication is designed, based on the information on the national identity card and face recognition. An additional encryption based security measure is used to avoid hacking attempts, such as man in the middle attacks. Since the proposed system is more practical than the traditional voting methods, it can increase the participation and be utilized in all kinds of local or national elections.

Restructuring Non-teaching Hospitals into Teaching Hospitals in Iran: Component Change in General Hospitals

Background: The present study investigated how a general hospital is restructured in Iran when transforming from a non-teaching into a teaching hospital. Methods: This applied study was conducted based on a mixed-method design from 2020 to 2021 using a systematic search and review, document analysis, comparative and cross-sectional design, multiple voting technique, and qualitative phenomenological method. Results: The conceptual framework of the components of a hospital as a system includes inputs (governance and policy-making, goals and mission, clinical and support departments, physical space, clients, and human resources), processes (internal and external relations, key processes, type and level of services, and teaching mission systematization), and outputs (performance evaluation, internal and external customer satisfaction, human capital empowerment, organizational behavior, income-cost management, cost-effectiveness and efficiency, service quality, and legal and social responsibility). Conclusion: The findings from the present study depicted how the components of teaching and non-teaching hospitals are restructured when changing their functions. Restructuring an established organization, such as a hospital, is very challenging and requires multiple changes. This study had some implications including highlighting the need to formulate protocols for restructuring non-teaching hospitals into teaching hospitals or constructing new teaching hospitals, classifying teaching hospitals and clarifying their differences, focusing on the teaching mission in hospitals, and reviewing and updating the integration of medical education in providing health services.

Group consensus under asymmetric voting behavior

Abstract In this study, we propose a group formation model by assuming voters hold asymmetric irrationality, namely the probability of accepting a candidate with whom they disagree with. Moreover, we utilize a non-Markovian function by introducing a rationality decay rate to represent that agents’ rationality decays as their contributed admissions on the candidate increase. We have systematically explored the impact of non-Markovian asymmetric irrationality, voter selection mechanisms, voter number, and group size on the degree of consensus. Our findings indicate that, with only one voter, as the group size increases, the degree of consensus converges to a value determined by the irrationality ratio. Remarkably, even in scenarios with significant asymmetry in irrationality, a substantial degree of consensus can still be maintained. Furthermore, for multiple voters, the relationship between the degree of group consensus and rationality decay rate exhibits non-monotonic behaviors. In summary, this research offers new theoretical insights into group dynamics and provides implications for enhancing consensus in real-world social groups.

Loyalty voting structures: A better dual class?

Abstract Loyalty voting structures (LVS) are designed to provide registered shareholders with multiple voting rights following a specified holding period. In theory this concept strikes a balance between dual-class structures (DCS), which enshrine founder control, and open structures that allow for control challenges. LVS entail a single class of shares, enabling all shareholders to possess multiple votes without incurring additional costs, while also limiting the privilege through a transfer sunset provision. Notably, LVS also preserve a key control advantage of DCS for founders, as they minimize the likelihood of control challenges through contested board elections. However, in practice LVS distinguish between bearer shares that are fully fungible and registered shares that allow the company to verify the holding period. Institutional shareholders often find it impossible to register their shares, thereby being deprived of multiple voting rights. Consequently, LVS effectively function as a mechanism to enhance control akin to dual-class structures. Transforming loyalty voting structures into a better dual class for institutional shareholders would require some legal and significant procedural modifications.

PubChem synonym filtering process using crowdsourcing

PubChem (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) is a public chemical information resource containing more than 100 million unique chemical structures. One of the most requested tasks in PubChem and other chemical databases is to search chemicals by name (also commonly called a “chemical synonym”). PubChem performs this task by looking up chemical synonym-structure associations provided by individual depositors to PubChem. In addition, these synonyms are used for many purposes, including creating links between chemicals and PubMed articles (using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms). However, these depositor-provided name-structure associations are subject to substantial discrepancies within and between depositors, making it difficult to unambiguously map a chemical name to a specific chemical structure. The present paper describes PubChem’s crowdsourcing-based synonym filtering strategy, which resolves inter- and intra-depositor discrepancies in synonym-structure associations as well as in the chemical-MeSH associations. The PubChem synonym filtering process was developed based on the analysis of four crowd-voting strategies, which differ in the consistency threshold value employed (60% vs 70%) and how to resolve intra-depositor discrepancies (a single vote vs. multiple votes per depositor) prior to inter-depositor crowd-voting. The agreement of voting was determined at six levels of chemical equivalency, which considers varying isotopic composition, stereochemistry, and connectivity of chemical structures and their primary components. While all four strategies showed comparable results, Strategy I (one vote per depositor with a 60% consistency threshold) resulted in the most synonyms assigned to a single chemical structure as well as the most synonym-structure associations disambiguated at the six chemical equivalency contexts. Based on the results of this study, Strategy I was implemented in PubChem’s filtering process that cleans up synonym-structure associations as well as chemical-MeSH associations. This consistency-based filtering process is designed to look for a consensus in name-structure associations but cannot attest to their correctness. As a result, it can fail to recognize correct name-structure associations (or incorrect ones), for example, when a synonym is provided by only one depositor or when many contributors are incorrect. However, this filtering process is an important starting point for quality control in name-structure associations in large chemical databases like PubChem.

Quo Vadis Technology-Based Companies to Issue MVS When Conducting an IPO on the IDX

This paper aims to examine whether technology-based companies issue multiple voting shares when conducting an initial public offering on the stock exchange is needed in Indonesia to be an urgency in Indonesia. The application of multi-voting shares must follow the stipulated provisions, starting from the share lock-up period to the validity period of the multi-voting shares. This article used normative legal research methods. The research findings show that shares with multiple voting rights give a lot of votes to old shareholders with a determination before the initial public offering and determined in the articles of association of the company. New shareholders, despite owning the majority of shares, only have 1 (one) vote per share or as in Law Number 40 of 2007 concerning Limited Liability Companies known as “one share one vote”. This optional policy implies that the shareholders, although the majority, do not control the company. This means that ordinary shareholders, although the majority, can only enjoy profits through capital gains and dividend distribution. However, if the issuer suffers a loss, the ordinary shareholders, who are the majority shareholders, will suffer the biggest loss.

ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКАЯ СУЩНОСТЬ МУЛЬТИГОЛОСУЮЩИХ АКЦИЙ И ВОЗМОЖНОСТЬ ИХ ИМПЛЕМЕНТАЦИИ НА РОССИЙСКОМ ФИНАНСОВОМ РЫНКЕ

Entrepreneurs often encounter challenges related to capital dilution and diminished control over strategic development when forming equity capital. The author proposes the adoption of multiple voting shares as a potential solution to this problem. It has been disclosed that a joint-stock company can issue multiple voting shares at various stages of its life cycle. The circulation of these shares is limited due to their conversion into ordinary shares during purchase and sale transactions, or in case of a specified duration of circulation prohibition. The implementation of a voting multiplier has been announced; clarifying that possessing multiple voting shares does not entitle the owner to extra dividend payments. Conversely, multiple voting shares are transformed into common shares at a one-to-one ratio determined by market value. The result of the study of the economic essence of multiple voting shares was the identification and analysis of the option component of this security. Therefore, there exists the potential to adopt an innovative method of generating financing opportunities for the company by introducing multiple voting shares that encompass the advantages of ordinary shares and a derivative financial instrument. Given the current state of the Russian financial market, where multiple voting shares are exclusively accessible to international companies, the author has developed proposals to modify the existing Russian legislation. These modifications will enable the standardization of equity formation practices among Russian joint-stock companies, while also enhancing the investment appeal of the Russian market for investors from allied states, where the trading of multiple voting shares is permitted.

Geo-coding of Voter’s Residential Address: A Panacea to Election Malpractice in Jos South LGA of Plateau State, Nigeria

According to NSGIC’s Geo-Enabled Elections project 2017-2019, transiting from the un-verifiable election method to Geographic Information System (GIS), elections management requires a sound plan, effort, and resolve. The inherent technical capacity of GIS visualization and analytical advantages involves replacing non-spatial ‘voter’s address file’ systems with election district and voter location data in a GIS format. But in practice, it require some additional investment, technology and resolve to answer the most frequently asked question from the electorates ‘If the election management body (INEC) in Nigeria knows the geographic locations of their voters’. This task of-course require a relentless efforts from INEC and building the staff capacities continuously. The file geodatabase of point attribute data set of all voters in the study was exported to ArcMap of ArcGIS into the geo-coder, where parameters were set for both urban and rural at prompt. The result on a spread-sheet format revealed name of each voter, the demographic characteristics, location (in terms of latitude and longitude) and shortest or nearest voting point. This reduces to a great extent multiple voting, reduce apathy and help INEC plan effectively.

Voting stake of the largest shareholder, ownership concentration and leverage

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the impact of the largest shareholder's voting stake on the firm's capital structure decision.Design/methodology/approachTo empirically analyze the influence of the voting stake on leverage, a large sample of 814 exchange-listed firms is applied. The baseline regression analysis is complemented by several robustness tests and a difference-in-difference regression analysis to mitigate endogeneity concerns.FindingsThe authors find a negative relationship between the voting stake of the largest shareholder and leverage, consistent with the notion that large, undiversified shareholders have the incentive to reduce risk. Additionally, results reveal that family control has a positive moderating effect, indicating that the negative relationship is less pronounced for family controlled firms.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors contribute to the research by suggesting ownership concentration as another determinant of capital structure. Further, the authors add to the literature by showing how the association between ownership concentration and leverage is moderated by family control and that the identity of the largest shareholder is of great importance.Practical implicationsThe paper provides important insights to the current debate on the proposal of the European Commission to reintroduce shares with multiple votes as part of the Listing Act. The authors expect the regulation to exacerbate the concentration of voting rights, which results in lower leverage and thus limits corporate growth.Originality/valueThe authors differentiate from previous studies by focusing the largest shareholders' voting stake, instead of using the ownership stake, to assess the impact of ownership concentration on leverage.

Digital technology and democracy in Nigeria: a study of how technology is transforming elections without necessarily deepening democracy

ABSTRACT This article examines the role of digital technologies in deepening democracy in Nigeria. It argues that though technologies have considerably improved the transparency and credibility of electoral processes in Nigeria, democracy remains stunted and weak. Elections have been marred by high voter apathy and low voter turnout. Vote buying has emerged to replace old forms of electoral malpractices such as ballot stuffing, result sheet manipulations, multiple voting and hijacking of ballot boxes. Furthermore, many elections in which technologies were used still end up being seriously disputed. The article concludes that deepening democracy requires much more than improving the credibility of electoral processes. Mature democracies are characterised by popular participation, equality of votes and effective representation. Other essential components include an independent electoral umpire, a sound legal framework and the rule of law.

Privacy-Preserving Decision-Making Over Blockchain

Many blockchain applications require democratic on-chain decision-making. In this work, we propose a community-inclusive decentralised collaborative decision-making system with privacy assurance. Its key component is a two-stage voting scheme inspired by choice architecture. Our decision-making system is compatible with most existing blockchain infrastructures. In addition, it supports liquid democracy/delegative voting for better collaborative intelligence. Namely, stake holders can either vote directly on proposals or delegate their voting power to experts. When majority of voting committee members are honest, no one can derive voters' voting preferences or delegations with non-negligible probability. To support concurrent multiple voting events, we design a distributed batch key generation protocol that can generate multiple keys simultaneously by voting committee members with amortised communication cost of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {O}(n)$</tex-math></inline-formula> per key, where <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$</tex-math></inline-formula> is the number of participants. Besides, our system supports “evolving committee”, i.e., voting committee members can be changed during the voting period. We implemented a pilot system in Scala, benchmark results indicate that our system can support large number of participants with high efficiency.

Delegated Proof of Stake Consensus Mechanism Based on Community Discovery and Credit Incentive.

Consensus algorithms are the core technology of a blockchain and directly affect the implementation and application of blockchain systems. Delegated proof of stake (DPoS) significantly reduces the time required for transaction verification by selecting representative nodes to generate blocks, and it has become a mainstream consensus algorithm. However, existing DPoS algorithms have issues such as "one ballot, one vote", a low degree of decentralization, and nodes performing malicious actions. To address these problems, an improved DPoS algorithm based on community discovery is designed, called CD-DPoS. First, we introduce the PageRank algorithm to improve the voting mechanism, achieving "one ballot, multiple votes", and we obtain the reputation value of each node. Second, we propose a node voting enthusiasm measurement method based on the GN algorithm. Finally, we design a comprehensive election mechanism combining node reputation values and voting enthusiasm to select secure and reliable accounting nodes. A node credit incentive mechanism is also designed to effectively motivate normal nodes and drive out malicious nodes. The experimental simulation results show that our proposed algorithm has better decentralization, malicious node eviction capabilities and higher throughput than similar methods.

Next-Generation Organic Beauty Products Obtained from Algal Secondary Metabolites: A Sustainable Development in Cosmeceutical Industries.

Algae lay over most of the earth's habitats, and it is said that there are more algal cells in water than there are stars in the sky. They are among the wealthiest marine resources that are to be deemed harmless, with hardly any deleterious consequences. Recently, they have received a lot of consideration to be used in cosmeceuticals. Cosmetics encompass synthetic concoctions that are extremely toxic to the environment. Due to their higher molecular size, synthetic cosmetic items induce undesirable side effects and inadequate absorption rates. Consequently, utilizing algae or their secondary metabolites in cosmetics has won multiple votes. Various secondary metabolites synthesized from algae are known to provide skin advantages, such as ultraviolet protection and reduction of skin flaccidity, rough texture, and wrinkles. The tangent drawn here using algae reduces the inorganic/organic chemicals used in the industry that are known to accumulate and affect other organisms and thus opens a pandora's box of ways to a less-polluted environment. The alga is indeed very intriguing. According to the reported studies, algal cells provide biosorption, bio-assimilation, biotransformation, and biodegradation, making them suitable for the eradication of chronic and harmful contaminants from the environment. Another rapid innovation is the product's sustainability. While presenting and marketing new algal products, cosmetics producers have greatly highlighted that they are eco-friendly. This review thus accentuates the significance of using algae and their secondary metabolites in cosmetics to produce extensive variety of products that include sunscreens, moisturizers, anti-aging creams, colorants, and hair care items and extensive insight on the possible remedial capacities of algae species against environmentally dangerous substances in the context of cosmetic chemicals.

The drop box location problem

For decades, voting-by-mail and the use of ballot drop boxes has substantially grown within the USA, and in response, many USA election officials have added drop boxes to their voting infrastructure. However, existing guidance for locating drop boxes is limited. In this article, we introduce an integer programming model, the Drop Box Location Problem (DBLP), to locate drop boxes. The DBLP considers criteria of cost, voter access, and risk. The cost of the drop box system is determined by the fixed cost of adding drop boxes and the operational cost of a collection tour by a bipartisan team who regularly collects ballots from selected locations. The DBLP utilizes covering sets to ensure each voter is in close proximity to a drop box and incorporates a novel measure of access to measure the ability to use multiple voting pathways to vote. The DBLP is shown to be NP-hard, and we introduce a heuristic to generate a large number of feasible solutions for policy makers to select from a posteriori. Using a real-world case study of Milwaukee, WI, U.S., we study the benefits of the DBLP. The results demonstrate that the proposed optimization model identifies drop box locations that perform well across multiple criteria. The results also demonstrate that the trade-off between cost, access, and risk is non-trivial, which supports the use of the proposed optimization-based approach to select drop box locations.

Regimul juridic al acțiunilor cu drept de vot multiplu

Starting from the possibility for shareholders to derogate from the rule one share – one vote, this article examines whether and under what conditions multiple voting shares may be issued. The scientific approach reviews not only the applicable legal framework, including from a historical perspective, but also the relevant doctrine and jurisprudence, as well as aspects of comparative law.

Multiple Voting Rights in Shares - Old Misconceptions and New Challenges

Multiple Voting Rights in Shares - Old Misconceptions and New Challenges

ACB-Vote: Efficient, Flexible, and Privacy- Preserving Blockchain-Based Score Voting With Anonymously Convertible Ballots

Blockchain has emerged as a decentralized platform for e-voting. Among various blockchain-based voting systems, score voting provides flexible choices and better reflects public opinions. However, existing blockchain-based score voting systems suffer from heavy range proof overheads, and are much inefficient compared with other blockchain-based voting systems. Besides, voter anonymity in these systems is not rigorously addressed. In this paper, we propose an efficient, flexible and privacy-preserving score voting system, named ACB-Vote, from anonymously convertible ballots. ACB-Vote achieves voting anonymity with BBS+ signature and signature of knowledge. Driven by convertibly linkable signatures (CLS), ACB-Vote allows cast ballots to be converted, where the conversion mechanism prevents anonymous voters from multiple voting. Besides, the proposed system avoids heavy range proofs, enables batch ballot verification and facilitates flexible tallying methods. We formally define a security model for ACB-Vote and provide rigorous security proofs. Experiments show that the efficiency of ACB-Vote is competitive compared with the previous score voting systems and is affordable in blockchain environments.

Do deviations from shareholder democracy harm sustainability An empirical analysis of multiple voting shares in Europe

Do deviations from shareholder democracy harm sustainability An empirical analysis of multiple voting shares in Europe

Analisis Hukum Atas Penerapan Klasifikasi Saham Dengan Hak Suara Multipel Di Pasar Modal Indonesia

The Financial Services Authority (OJK) issued OJK Regulation Number 22/POJK.04/2021 concerning the Application of Stock Classification with Multiple Voting Rights by Issuers with Innovation and High Growth Rates conducting Public Offerings of Equity Securities in the form of Shares (POJK 22/2021). The problem raised in this research is the implications for investors on the regulation of the implementation of stock classification with multiple voting rights by issuers in the capital market. This research is a normative or doctrinal legal research, which describes, explains, and analyzes the optional policies carried out by OJK through POJK 22/202. The analysis is carried out using a qualitative descriptive approach that begins with collecting legal materials, qualifying them, connecting theories related to research problems, drawing conclusions to determine results and recommendations. The results of this study indicate that issuers who exercise multiple voting rights in the capital market can make the majority shareholder unable to control the company. Investors who will own shares in issuers that implement this policy only have the advantage of enjoying dividends only if the issuer makes a profit. However, if the issuer suffers a loss, the investor will suffer the biggest loss.

Private Rank Aggregation in Central and Local Models

In social choice theory, (Kemeny) rank aggregation is a well-studied problem where the goal is to combine rankings from multiple voters into a single ranking on the same set of items. Since rankings can reveal preferences of voters (which a voter might like to keep private), it is important to aggregate preferences in such a way to preserve privacy. In this work, we present differentially private algorithms for rank aggregation in the pure and approximate settings along with distribution-independent utility upper and lower bounds. In addition to bounds in the central model, we also present utility bounds for the local model of differential privacy.