Polling Place Research Articles

Electing to Learn from Elections

Elections happen every year. From selecting our mayors and congresspeople to weighing in on countless referendum issues, every November we have the opportunity to go to our polling places and voice our opinions about our future. However, these elections rarely receive more attention than the big one that occurs every four years, the election of the president of the United States of America. The 2024 presidential election is no different. It is seemingly impossible to get through the day without hearing some news item about the vote for the next leader of the free world.

Using Twitter to Detect Polling Place Issue Reports on U.S. Election Days

Using Twitter to Detect Polling Place Issue Reports on U.S. Election Days

Legislators’ accountability for issue stances: evidence from Australia’s Marriage Law Postal Survey

ABSTRACT For legislators to be held accountable for their stances voters need to sanction unpopular positions. However, because of strong party discipline it is difficult to identify the effects of individual MPs’ stances rather than the stance of their party, because MPs almost always have the same stance as their party. Researchers must therefore study issues which cut across parties or where parties allowed representatives to follow their conscience. Same-sex marriage is one such issue. We use data from the 2017 marriage law survey and subsequent 2019 federal election results to test whether MPs whose referendum positions were out-of-step with their district faced electoral sanction. We find that a standard deviation increase in congruence at the level of the polling place catchment area yields a statistically and substantively insignificant change in vote share of −0.1 percentage points. The results question the degree to which electors control their representatives beyond voting for a party label.

Travel Cost on Election Day and Voter-Turnout in Chile: Exploring University Students’ Willingness to Cast a Hypothetical Online Vote

An i-voting system may promote electoral participation by reducing travel cost and time to polling places, especially among youth who are more accustomed to technological changes. We study the linkage between travel costs on election day and voter turnout by comparing past electoral participation with stated voting behavior in a hypothetical i-voting system. We believe that the link between transportation costs, i-voting, and voter-turnout emerges as an interesting opportunity to disentangle the mechanism behind the expected increase in political participation after diversifying voting channels. Data were collected using an online questionnaire that was disseminated among Chilean university students. Binary and bivariate probit estimates show that conventional turnout probability among university students is negatively affected by travel costs on election day. Interestingly, whereas political interest and democracy valuation still augment the probability of voter turnout with i-voting, travel-to-polling-station costs are not statistically relevant.

Online Voting System

Having a democratic voting system in place is crucial for any nation due to the general distrust of the conventional voting system. Individuals have seen the infringement of their basic rights. Lack of transparency has been a problem with several electronic voting methods. The government has a hard time winning the confidence of its citizens since most voting processes aren't transparent enough. It is easy to abuse, which is why both the old and new digital voting systems have failed. Finding solutions to issues with both the paper and electronic voting systems, such as voting-related injustices and accidents, is the main goal. A fair election with less injustice is possible with the use of blockchain technology integrated into the voting process. Both digital and physical voting methods have their limitations, making them unsuitable for widespread use. This evaluates the importance of finding a way to protect people's democratic rights. To foster confidence between voters and election officials, this article introduces a platform built on blockchain technology, which maximises system stability and transparency. Without the need for traditional polling places, the proposed technology lays the groundwork for digital voting using blockchain. A scalable blockchain may be supported by our suggested architecture via the use of adaptable consensus algorithms. The voting process is made more secure with the use of the Chain Security algorithm. When conducting a chain transaction, smart contracts provide a safe channel of communication between the user and the network. There has also been talk of the voting system's security being based on blockchain technology.

Race and democratic decline in the United States: How minority population growth affects election administration

AbstractObjectivesWe ask whether counties with growing black and Latino populations have reduced the number of poll workers and polling sites. We argue that the association between changing racial demographics and election infrastructure has been exacerbated by the release of certain jurisdictions from the Voting Rights Act's (VRA) “preclearance” requirement under Section 5.MethodsRelying on data from the 2016 and 2018 Election Administration and Voting Survey and demographic data from the American Community Survey, we conduct a multilevel linear regression on a sample of roughly 4000 counties.ResultsWe find that counties respond to changes in the Latino population, though not changes in the black population, by reducing access to election resources. This relationship is especially pronounced in areas formerly covered by Section 5 of the VRA.ConclusionsGiven the importance of polling places and workers for in‐person voting, our findings raise serious concerns for racial equality in election access and influence.

Momentum Politik dalam Pembangunan Komitmen Penanggulangan Bencana di Daerah

Approaching 2024, Indonesia will experience a process or momentum of changing heads of state and regional chiefs. Politically, if there is a new head of state, it is possible that there will be several legal policy reforms in the implementation of development, as well as disaster management policies. In terms of disaster events, natural disasters that occur during the implementation of political momentum can threaten the loss of political rights, damage to voter lists, disruption of supporting infrastructure, relocation of polling places (TPS), obstruction of logistics procurement and distribution channels, as well as delays in changing government. Thus, as a mitigation measure for disaster management during political momentum, synergy between Ministries/Institutions and Regional Governments is needed in dealing with natural disasters so that they do not disrupt political, legal and national security stability. Political momentum through simultaneous General Elections (Pemilu) and Regional Chiefs Elections (Pilkada) must be seen as momentum to emphasize the commitment of regional leaders to improving disaster management services to the community as well as realizing Indonesia as a Center of Excellence in Sustainable Resilience. Disaster issues must be given attention, including including disaster issues in the vision and mission in the Pilkada campaign and become a commitment of the elected Regional Chiefs

Ballot and Beyond: Exploring Blockchain Voting

Abstract: The conventional voting system faces widespread distrust, necessitating a shift towards democratic voting in nations. The suggested platform offers a framework that can be used to perform blockchain-based digital voting without the need for actual polling places. Our suggested design makes use of adaptable consensus algorithms to enable a scalable blockchain. The voting process can be made more secure by the voting system’s application of the Chain Security Algorithm. In the process of carrying out a transaction in the chain, smart contracts offer a safe connection between the user and the network. It has also been argued how secure the voting mechanism based on blockchain is. Furthermore, elaborated are the methods for preventing 51 percent attack on the blockchain and encrypting transactions using cryptographic hashes. Additionally, using Blockchain, the procedure for conducting blockchain transactions during the voting process has been developed. Ultimately, the suggested system’s performance review demonstrates that a sizable population can use the system. In conclusion the proposed blockchainbased voting system aims to build trust between government and voters, make the voting process transparent and trustworthy, and improve the level of the electoral system’s reliability, traceability, and trust.

Pengembangan Aplikasi E-Voting Untuk Pemilihan RT/RW Menggunakan Metode Waterfall di Lingkungan Masyarakat Daerah Macan Lindungan Bukit

This research focused on RT.003 RW.003 in Macan Lindungan Bukit area. The RT.003.RW.003 area is included in Bukit Baru Village, Ilir Barat I District, Macan Lindungan Region. Bukit Baru Village has existed since February 22, 1996. Initially, Bukit Baru Village was the result of the expansion of Bukit Lama Village. Bukit Baru sub-district, especially the RT.003 area, was initially very quiet and deserted because most of the area was swamp, where the population was still very small. Along with the progress of development and the increase in living standards and the success of government, especially RT.003, Bukit Baru Village, it can be said to be developing well. As an area that is still developing towards a developed society area, the selection of RT.003 and RW.003 in this area is still done manually. Where residents are invited to come to the meeting hall to vote, with paper and pens distributed by the committee to choose the candidate for RT/RW chairman. In this research, we will develop an E-Voting application system, which will be implemented in RT.003 in Macan Lindungan area. E-Voting was developed to make it easier for citizens to vote and to know the results quickly. The method used in software development uses the Waterfall system planning method using Unified Modeling Language (UML) and system testing uses black box testing. With the web-based e-voting application development model, residents no longer have to come to the polling place but residents can simply vote from home. The programming language used in developing this e-voting application is Web-based PHP and a database that uses MYSQL. Residents who are voters in RT.003 area will be given a user name and password in the online voting process, and can see the vision and mission platform of RT.003 chairman candidates in the e-voting application. The e-voting system that was built provides an interface that is easy for users to use and offers a data search process and election report results that can be immediately known, compared to manual processes.

The Limits of Preclearance

AbstractOn June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court ended enforcement of Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder. As a result, over 3500 municipalities were released from the preclearance requirement to seek federal approval prior to enacting changes to elections. Despite the Court’s majority opinion that Section 5 was no longer needed, practices like enforcing strict voter ID requirements and last-minute polling place changes increased dramatically after Shelby County. However, one underexamined election change is changing municipal boundaries through annexations. Municipal annexations can weaken minority political representation in municipal elections if minority population shares decrease after annexation. Using difference-in-differences models, I analyze annexations for over 15,000 municipalities from 2007–2020 across all forty U.S. states with annexable land. I find no evidence that municipalities previously covered by Section 5 increased annexation activity or that they conducted more annexations that dilute Black and minority resident shares after Shelby County. Patterns of annexations pre-Shelby County suggest that the null finding can be explained by the limited effectiveness of Section 5 in preventing minority dilution through annexations when it was in place. This study underscores how municipal boundaries can be manipulated to perpetuate inequality and the limitations of federal legislation in preventing this practice.

Free public transit and voter turnout

Transportation costs are an under-studied barrier to political participation. In many elections worldwide, subsidies to voter transportation are already provided or are under discussion. However, these types of incentives have not been rigorously evaluated. Here we examine possibly the world's largest-ever intervention to lower these costs, the adoption of a fare-free public transit policy in Brazil during the 2022 national election, when about half of Brazilian voters were granted the right to use public transit for free on election days. However, while some cities adopted the benefit for both rounds of the election, others adopted it only for the second round. Using an event study design, we exploit this difference in adoption timing to examine the policy's causal impact on voter turnout rates and human mobility levels. We find that fare-free transit increased ridership between 7.2% and 17.5% on election days, however, we estimate a precise and robust null effect of the policy on voter turnout (Coef. −0.03p.p. with standard error of 0.22p.p.). Our results illustrate that monetary transport costs may not always be a critical factor behind non-participation. Although reducing transportation costs improves access to polling places, we show that even a full transit subsidy may not be sufficient to increase voter turnout.

The effect of micro-level context in polling stations on voting

Studies of electoral geography have traditionally examined the impact of spatial context on vote choice at the neighborhood or larger geographical level, overlooking potential effects of the immediate physical environment in the polling station. Observations of actual polling stations located in schools in Israel revealed a strong presence of nationalist and religious content in and around voting booths, in the form of naïve décor such as murals and children’s drawings (Study 1). In three experimental studies (Studies 2–4), we examine the effect on voters of such seemingly apolitical cues. The experimental studies were conducted in the days prior to Israeli general elections for the 21st and 22nd Knesset. Using a virtual-reality interface based on real-life content in actual polling stations (Study 2, student sample) and simulated environments (Studies 3 and 4, representative samples of Jewish Israeli voters), the three experiments document an effect of naïve nationalist décor on simulated voting, particularly for left-wing less-nationalist voters. In Study 5, based on actual voting in the 22nd Knesset, we capitalize on the random allocation of voters to polling stations in schools and find a correlation between the content displayed around polling places and voting patterns among distinctively left-wing populations. Investigating the influence of the encounter with the immediate environment at a resolution of meters and seconds exposes the potential impact of the (ultra-)micro temporo-spatial scale on decision-making and enriches theoretical discussions on the multiscalarity of contexts in electoral geography analyses.

Examining the Impacts of Technology and Trust on I-Voting Acceptance in the COVID-19 Aftermath

This article presents an empirical study of influence of the domain-specific factors of trust in the electoral system and administration, trust in technology, citizens' attitudes toward voting, and COVID-19 conditions on the intention to use i-voting. The study examines and assesses the relationships and effects of the various factors that influence the intention to use i-voting. Survey data from 633 adult Slovenian citizens were collected in 2022, when voters were still burdened by the pandemic and needed to visit the polling place at least five times to participate in all scheduled voting. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data and develop the model. The study provides important findings, such as (1) trust in the voting system has a significant impact on voters' intention to use i-voting, (2) fear of COVID-19 does not persuade people to use i-voting, and (3) previous attitudes toward voting do not have a significant impact on voter intention to use i-voting.

The Role of Election Commission in Strengthening Democracy System of Pakistan: An Analysis

The objective of this research is to examine the role of the Election Commission in strengthening the democracy system in Pakistan through a comparative analysis of electoral management systems in India, USA, and Pakistan. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of recent electoral reforms and recommend further improvements in the electoral process in Pakistan. A comparative analysis of electoral management systems in other countries can provide valuable insights and recommendations for Pakistan. The research methodology used in this research is a qualitative approach, including a review of existing literature, analysis of data from official reports, and interviews with key stakeholders. The study found that the Election Commission in Pakistan has faced challenges due to political interference, lack of resources, and inadequate use of technology. Comparatively, the Election Commissions in India and the USA have implemented best practice. The report suggests the following changes to improve Pakistan's voting system based on its results. The first step is to create a neutral Election Commission, followed by the use of technology, the promotion of voter education, the reform of campaign financing, and the avoidance of violence at polling places.

Design and Development of An E-Voting Model for Village Head Elections Based on Android

Voting or voting in a democratic country is an important part of the means of selecting leaders. Village head elections are generally still carried out conventionally, elections still use paper to elect village heads (Kades) which are carried out by punching one of the candidate images. The problem that arises is that voters must come to the polling place in order to be able to collect data and vote, for Citizens who cannot attend the polling place or do not exercise their right to vote will add to the data on the abstentions list that is present at the election. In village head elections (Pilkades) the vote counting process is still done manually so it takes quite a long time. This study aims to build an e-voting simulation system which is expected to provide knowledge of technological developments in the field of general elections. This system development method uses Waterfall. Furthermore, if you have obtained the results, you will test the system that was built by testing it with the black box testing method to see in terms of functionality all features are running smoothly or not. The results of testing the E-voting application for village head elections show that the system can run well and has been implemented so that it can be used on Android-based smartphone devices.

Privacy Preserving Voting Scheme Based on Blockchain Technology

Democracy has made voting incredibly important in any nation due to a general scepticism of the traditional voting process. Individuals have witnessed violations of their fundamental rights. Lack of transparency has led to challenges to other digital voting systems. The majority of voting methods are not sufficiently transparent, which makes it highly challenging for the government to win over voters' trust. The previous and present digital voting systems have failed because they are vulnerable to abuse. The main goal is to fix issues with the traditional and electronic voting systems, including any form of error or unfairness that may occur when voting. To ensure a fair election and lessen unfairness, blockchain technology can be included into the voting process. The computerised voting methods are not flawless enough to be used on a broad scale, and the physical voting systems have numerous problems as well. This evaluates the requirement for a remedy to safeguard citizens' democratic rights. In order to establish a trustworthy working connection between voters and election officials, this article introduces a platform based on cutting-edge blockchain technology. Without using any actual polling places, the proposed technology offers a framework that may be used to conduct voting activity digitally through blockchain. Our suggested design uses adaptable consensus algorithms to support a scalable blockchain. Blockchains with pre-established validation procedures were developed for a specific voting storage.Voter verification will be provided by IRIS Recognition. All systems in a value chain save blocks of time-stamped voting. Blockchain is a log of transactions where members of a community may track asset transfers. Using the SHA-256 technique, two blocks are connected to one another. It has also been elaborated on how to encrypt transactions using cryptographic hashes and guard against 51% attacks on the blockchain. Also, the method for conducting blockchain transactions during the voting process has been developed using Blockchain Lastly, the performance assessment of the suggested method demonstrates that it may be used to a sizable population

Health Risks and Voting: Emphasizing Safety Measures Taken to Prevent COVID-19 Does Not Increase Willingness to Vote in Person

The COVID-19 pandemic made salient the risks posed by an infectious disease at a polling place. To what degree did such health risks, as with other changes to voting costs, affect the willingness to vote in person? Could highlighting safety measures reduce the association between COVID fears and unwillingness to vote in person? Using both a representative survey of Connecticut voters and a survey experiment, we examine whether concerns about health diminish willingness to vote in person. We find correlational evidence that those who are more worried about COVID-19 are less likely to report they will vote in person, even when considering risk mitigation efforts. We then present causal evidence that mentioning the safety measures being taken does little to offset the negative effect of priming COVID-19 risk on willingness to vote in person. These results contribute to a growing literature that assesses how health risks affect in person voting.

Authority after the Tempest: Hurricane Michael and the 2018 Elections

Hurricane Michael made landfall in the Florida panhandle 27 days before the 2018 elections. In the aftermath the governor issued Executive Order 18-283, allowing election officials in eight affected counties to loosen a variety of voting laws and consolidate polling places but providing no emergency funding to maintain the planned number of polling places. We test the efficacy of the order, using a novel research design that separates the weather effects of the hurricane on turnout from the administrative effects of how the election was run. We find little evidence that the hurricane itself (as proxied by historically relative rainfall) reduced turnout but that the executive order likely had large, negative turnout effects thanks to widespread polling place consolidation. Natural disasters need not spell turnout disasters if state and local election officials can avoid reducing the number of polling places.

Kajian Evaluatif Perselisihan Hasil Pemilihan (PHP) Kepala Daerah Serentak Tahun 2020 Di Provinsi Kalimantan

This research will discuss, First, the factors that are the causes of the Election Result Disputes (PHP) for the 2020 Regional Heads of the South Kalimantan Province at the Constitutional Court and Second, the consequences that arise in the Implementation of the Decisions on the Election Result Dispute (PHP) for the 2020 Regional Heads of the Province Simultaneously South Kalimantan at the Constitutional Court.This research was conducted using the Normative Juridical approach, which examines statutory regulations and other literature related to regional head election results in disputes (PHP) at the Constitutional Court. The review of laws and regulations and library materials is also used as material for conducting discussions and finding solutions to problems. This study examines the causes of disputes over election results up to the implementation of decisions. It will identify existing problems in the form of solutions under the provisions of the election law and regional head elections in Indonesia.The results of this study show that the Election Results Dispute (PHP) for Regional Heads of South Kalimantan Province Simultaneously in 2020 at the Constitutional Court does not only originate from the Election of the Governor and Deputy Governor of South Kalimantan but there also from PHP Regents and Deputy Regents of Banjar Regency, Kota Baru Regency and Wali City and Deputy Mayor of Banjarmasin City, totalling seven decisions, two decisions for PHP Governor and Deputy Governor, 3 Decisions of Regent and Deputy Regent (Banjar and Kota Baru), 2 Decisions of Mayor and Deputy Mayor (Banjarmasin). The factors causing the Election Result Disputes (PHP) for Regional Heads of South Kalimantan Province Simultaneously in 2020 at the Constitutional Court consist of 2 factors. First, regulatory factors, namely the threshold for disputes over election results. % at polling places, PPK opened mailboxes, and there was vote inflation and fraud in the voting and vote-counting process. Furthermore, there are two aspects of the legal consequences arising from the implementation of the Constitutional Court decision. First, the implementation of the re-voting (PSU) and Second, the determination of the elected regional head candidates.

Wybrane regulacje profrekwencyjne (propartycypacyjne) w kodeksie wyborczym z perspektywy społecznej oraz prawnokonstytucyjnej

The article analyzes selected amendments to the Electoral Code introduced by the law of January 26, 2023, which aim (according to the drafters) to increase voter turnout. Although the goal of the amendment should be considered legitimate, its implementation raises concerns. The study aims to present the regulations contained in Articles 37e-37g and to assess the doubts related to them, concerning: their procedure (e.g., the short period between the submission of the draft and the start of its consideration, or the vague justification of the proposed changes, or the lack of reference of the justification to objectified data) and their content (e.g., the legitimacy of adopting an age limit of 60 years while omitting residents of urban municipalities deprived of free transportation if in their municipality on election day public transportation does not function, or the distance between the nearest transportation stop and the polling place exceeds 1.5 km)