Postal Ballot Research Articles

RCN urges members to vote in strike ballot

As the RCN launches its postal ballot on industrial action over pay, nurses are being asked to vote for historical strike action.

Conducting elections amid pandemics: lessons learnt from the United States and a way forward for Pakistan

Conducting general elections while the pandemic prevails is a huge upcoming challenge for all democracies. Issues and controversies of the 2020 US elections that were conducted amid pandemic are sufficient to alert the rest to take proactive preventive measures and fast track relevant policy adoption ahead of time. Implications of the Coronavirus Pandemic on US General Elections 2020 were grave. From public opinion to election campaigning, from virtual rallies to the very act of voting itself, the virus upended the whole election process. Keeping in view the issues faced by the US, especially the controversy of use of postal ballots for vote, the study discusses policy guidelines and considerations that can help in developing a framework to adopt innovative and risk-free measures in conducting elections amid pandemics. Furthermore, it discusses a way forward for Pakistan in case the situation of Pandemic prevails. The study also includes opinions of electoral experts who have worked on electoral projects in Pakistan. In order to present the opinion of public, a survey has been included which depicts the choice of voters regarding use of alternate voting methods in future elections because voters’ trust in any new system is a key for successful policymaking.

Sentiment Analysis of before and after Elections: Twitter Data of U.S. Election 2020

U.S. President Joe Biden took his oath after being victorious in the controversial U.S. elections of 2020. The polls were conducted over postal ballot due to the coronavirus pandemic following delays of the announcement of the election’s results. Donald J. Trump claimed that there was potential rigging against him and refused to accept the results of the polls. The sentiment analysis captures the opinions of the masses over social media for global events. In this work, we analyzed Twitter sentiment to determine public views before, during, and after elections and compared them with actual election results. We also compared opinions from the 2016 election in which Donald J. Trump was victorious with the 2020 election. We created a dataset using tweets’ API, pre-processed the data, extracted the right features using TF-IDF, and applied the Naive Bayes Classifier to obtain public opinions. As a result, we identified outliers, analyzed controversial and swing states, and cross-validated election results against sentiments expressed over social media. The results reveal that the election outcomes coincide with the sentiment expressed on social media in most cases. The pre and post-election sentiment analysis results demonstrate the sentimental drift in outliers. Our sentiment classifier shows an accuracy of 94.58% and a precision of 93.19%.

Increasing participation in the 2019 UK general election amongst patients on a high intensity rehabilitation ward

AimsTo increase participation in the 2019 UK general election amongst inpatients on a high intensity rehabilitation ward, by supporting patients to both register to vote (RTV) and vote.BackgroundIn 2000, the franchise was extended to those under section 2 or 3 as well as informal inpatients. Unfortunately, voting rates remain low: studies of the 2010 general election show voting rates amongst psychiatric inpatients to be 14%, compared to 65% for the general population. Engaging patients in the democratic process is not only just, it has been shown to be an effective avenue for rehabilitation through increasing social capital. The 2019 UK general election represents a singular opportunity for biopsychosocial rehabilitation.MethodIn the three weeks up until 26/11/19 – the deadline to RTV – visual displays and verbal information were used to notify patients of: The electionTheir eligibilityThe need to RTV before casting a ballotThe registration deadlineVoting methods (in person, by post, by proxy)We gathered patients’ intention to RTV and offered impartial, personalised support to register online or by paper, and to apply for a postal or proxy ballot if wished. Patients with no fixed abode were supported to use the ward as their declared place of residence.ResultOf the 17 patients on the ward there were:Four informal patients11 patients under section 3One patient each under a section 37 and a section 37/41, both ineligible to voteOf the 15 eligible patients, one (6.7%) had already registered, six patients (40%) wanted to register and eight (53.3%) stated they did not want to register. Those wanting to register were supported according to individual patient preference. Of the registered seven, five (33.3%) reported voting, one (6.7%) reported not having voted and one (6.7%) declined to say. Two (13.3%) voted in person and five (33.3%) voted by postal ballot.ConclusionOur intervention corresponded with an increase in number of patients registering – from one patient (6.7%) to seven (46.7%), with 5-6 (33.3-40%) casting their ballot. While the causal relationship should not be overstated, the uptake of assistance supports the intervention's efficacy.Good rehabilitation increases a person's social capital, empowering them to actively participate in societal life. Registering to vote is a tacit assertion of this principle. Our study shows that brief interventions that are easily incorporated into everyday care are a simple, effective and ultimately necessary tool in holistic mental health rehabilitation.

Postal ballot in unconsolidated democracy: Poland's case

PurposeAs the democratic world debates and in some cases replaces physical voting with postal ballots and on-line voting, it is important to refrain from advocating a generic approach to the issue and in particular to distinguish between consolidated and unconsolidated democracies.Design/methodology/approachThe paper argues that unconsolidated democracies are not fit for the introduction of non-physical (postal ballot and on-line) voting methods, which rather than broadening the scope of democracy may in actual fact be derailing it. The key reason for this distinction is the lack of political consensus for constitutional rules, the weakness of the rule of law and persistence of parochial and subject-based political cultures in many countries of the region, including Poland.FindingsReplacing physical voting with postal ballot, attempted during Presidential elections in the summer 2020 in Poland, eventually failed and was replaced with conventional physical vote. However, the Polish case demonstrates that in the system with weak checks and balances, postal ballot could be used to consolidate illiberalism not democracy.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper demonstrates that further research on defining consolidated and unconsolidated democracy is needed. In particular there is a need to factor in the research on political culture into the definitions of democratic consolidation.Practical implicationsEU membership for Poland and some other Central European states – such as Hungary – failed to prompt the process of democratic consolidation. In fact the opposite happened as the impact of EU conditionality lost relevance. It is important that any change of electoral law in Poland and other rule of law violators in the region is viewed with great care and scrutiny.Originality/valueThe paper’s conceptual approach rests on the definition of consolidated democracy as put forward by Przeworski (1991) and developed by Linz and Stepan (1996). According to these definitions, Poland is not yet a consolidated democracy and as argued in the paper, it has actually experienced an expansion of illiberalism in recent years. The paper also posits that the concept of “consolidated democracy” should be augmented to include the existence of civic political culture as a necessary condition for the maintenance of a healthy democracy.

Why Do Most Countries Ban Mail-In Ballots?: They Have Seen Massive Vote Fraud Problems

Thirty-seven states have so far changed their mail-in voting procedures this year in response to the Coronavirus. Despite frequent claims that President Trump’s warning about vote fraud/voting buying with mail-in ballots is “baselessly” or “without evidence” about mail-in vote fraud, there are numerous examples of vote fraud and vote buying with mail-in ballots in the United States and across the world. Indeed, concerns over vote fraud and vote buying with mail-in ballots causes the vast majority of countries to ban mail-in voting unless the citizen is living abroad. There are fraud problems with mail-in absentee ballots but the problems with universal mail-in ballots are much more significant. Still most countries ban even absentee ballots for people living in their countries.Most developed countries ban absentee ballots unless the citizen is living abroad or require Photo-IDs to obtain those ballots. Even higher percentages of European Union or other European countries ban absentee for in country voters. In addition, some countries that allow voting by mail for citizens living the country don’t allow it for everyone. For example, Japan and Poland have limited mail-in voting to those who have special certificates verifying that they are disabled. France has made an exception this year to the ban on absentee ballots to those who are sick or at particular risk during the Coronavirus pandemic. Poland and two cities in Russia have adopted mail-in ballots for elections this year only, but most countries haven't changed their regulations. France banned absentee voting in 1975 because of massive fraud in Corsica, where postal ballots were stolen or bought and voters cast multiple votes. Mail-in ballots were used to cast the votes of dead people. Examples for other countries are provided.

Pre-Strike Ballots and Collective Bargaining: The Impact of Quorum and Ballot Mode Requirements on Access to Lawful Industrial Action

Abstract In 2016, the UK Parliament passed the Trade Union Act 2016 (TU Act 2016), which introduced new quorum and approval requirements for pre-strike ballots. In Australia, mandatory pre-strike ballots, including a quorum requirement, were first introduced in 2006. This article explains the key features of the Australian pre-strike ballot system and reports on quantitative and qualitative empirical research findings on the operation of the ballots process to analyse the majority and quorum requirements, mode of ballot (postal, attendance or electronic) and choice of ballot agent. Quorum is the biggest obstacle to Australian unions authorising strike action under the pre-strike ballot rules, and postal ballots fail to reach quorum at significantly higher rates than do attendance ballots. By introducing quorums and retaining the requirement that all pre-strike ballots must be conducted by post, the TU Act 2016 endorsed the two factors under the Australian regime most likely to impede the authorisation of strike action in a pre-strike ballot.

Shareholders activism in corporate governance

Corporate law in India too has undergone changes in relevant rules and regulations due to corporate frauds and failures. Corporate Governance structure under the companies Act, 2013, is standing on six pillars, which included Independent directors, Audit committee, Auditors, Internal Audit, Whistle Blower policy and secretarial Audit Report. Active participation of all stakeholders in corporate governance frame work, continuous regulatory changes and entry of domestic and overseas institutional investors have all given birth to shareholders activism in India. The present article focuses on shareholder activism in corporate governance in India Inc. SEBI LODR regulations have called for greater degree of disclosures by companies to take-well informed decisions for the shareholders in general and minority shareholders in particular. The key drivers in shareholders activism in India include Regulatory reforms, related party transactions, Annual reports and Business Responsibility Reporting, E-voting and postal ballot, responsibilities of auditors in reporting fraud, appointment of director by small shareholders, Equity research analysis and proxy advisors. The rising scenario of shareholder activism and corporate governance standards, it is needless to mention that active participation of shareholders will bring more alertness on corporate governance arena in India Inc.

Related Party Transactions Under the Companies Act, 2013

The law governing RPTs is the Companies Act, 2013. The Companies Act, 2013 was unprecedented, in regard to the power granted to minority shareholders to reject RPT’s as the Ministry of Corporate affairs (hereinafter MCA) had come up with stringent rules which provided for several rounds of approval and disclosures of a wide range of transactions that companies entered into with relatives of promoters, entities controlled by promoters and entities controlled by relatives of promoters. Section 188 of the Act in its original form had mandated companies with paid-up capital greater than one crore rupees to seek approval of its board of directors by a special majority, irrespective of the share capital of the company or the value of a RPT. Section 188 of the Act to ensure independence in the manner of voting of RPTs had further barred all related parties from voting on RPTs. SEBI had also furthered the process of enhancing shareholder participation by mandating listed companies to provide ‘E-voting’ facilities to its shareholders in respect of business matters transacted by listed companies through the postal ballot procedure. The provision of E-voting facilities is likely to promote greater shareholder participation in matters concerning corporate governance. However, representations from the companies advocated that such stringent regulations hampered the efficiency in regard to business operations, the MCA through two circulars substantially diluted the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 .The First Circular narrowed the definition of a ‘Related party’ for the purposed of voting on resolutions, where the circular clarified that a shareholder under the second proviso to section 188(1) would be considered a related party only with reference to a contract or arrangement for which the special resolution was being passed. The provisions of the aforementioned circular enabled a large set of shareholders who are likely to benefit but are not ‘related’ under the Companies to vote on RPT resolutions.The second circular from the MCA removed the classification of companies on the basis of Paid-up Capital, where companies are now required to seek shareholder approval for only those RPT’s which cross the transaction threshold of hundred crore rupees. The Circular also exempted companies from seeking shareholder approvals for RPT’s with wholly subsidiaries which increased the scope for potential abuse at the cost of minority investors. Additionally, the Companies Amendment act, 2015 passed by the Indian parliament envisages that RPT’S would only need shareholder approval through an ‘ordinary resolution’ and not a ‘Special resolution’ of disinterested shareholders (Majority of minority) further reducing the power of minority shareholders to block abusive RPT’s owing to a lower threshold of shareholder approval. Furthermore, amendments to Section 188 of the Companies Act, 2014 in regard to RPT’s have not been aligned with clause 49 of the listing agreement with SEBI which could create inconsistencies in the application of the legal principles to governs RPTs. The recent decision of the Bombay High Court which questioned the validity of ‘E- Voting’ has raised several legal uncertainties in regard to the procedure for approval of RPT’s.

Postal ballot to change the RANZCP Constitution

Postal ballot to change the RANZCP Constitution

The Advent of Shareholder Activism in India

The recent spate of crises afflicting the corporate and financial sectors around the world has triggered a new wave of corporate governance reforms, which call for greater empowerment of institutional and retail shareholders. The need for such reforms cannot be greater than in India where controlling shareholders, or promoters, dominate the corporate landscape. Consistent with reforms in several countries that seek to confer greater power in the hands of shareholders, the recent regulatory developments in India signify a greater opportunity for shareholder participation in the form of postal ballot, e-voting and the like. The rapid proliferation of proxy advisory firms, a hitherto non-existent phenomenon in India, bestows shareholders with the advice necessary to exercise their corporate franchise in an informed manner. The presence of activist institutional shareholders such as private equity funds and hedge funds has already caused an upheaval in some corporate boardrooms in India. While these developments pave the way for a transformation in the tenor of the governance debate, shareholder activism encounters certain structural and institutional weaknesses embedded in the Indian markets. The dominance of controlling shareholders in most Indian companies operates to dampen the effects of shareholder activism. The legal system and institutions in India are not conducive to rendering timely and cost-effective remedies to shareholders who adopt a litigation strategy to counter managements that are perceived to act inimical to shareholder interests. This paper finds that although shareholder activism is becoming palpable in the Indian markets, its impact as a measure of corporate governance enhancement is far from clear.

Non-mandatory Recommendation under the CorporateGovernance Code in India: Influence and Impact

Empirical research on the adoption and impact of corporate governance code in India is much popular. However, the research studies have been carried out in the period immediately following the adoption of the code of corporate governance in India. These studies are therefore unanimous in their conclusion that corporate governance is in a very nascent stage; and that it is too early to analyze and assess its impact. Secondly, most of the research work is carried out taking into consideration the large companies. This may be partly due to the recommendations by the Kumar Mangalam Birla Committee for a phased implementation of the corporate governance code, beginning with large companies. The various committees on the Code o Corporate Governance made recommendations dividing the same into two: mandatory and non-mandatory recommendation. In the first part, the paper makes an attempt to look at the adoption of the code of corporate governance by the mid-cap companies in India. And in the second part, the paper more importantly reviews the adoption of the non-mandatory recommendations, if any by these companies. The study concludes that there is a fair adoption of the code of corporate governance among the mid-cap companies in India. Further on, the adoption of the non-mandatory measures is found to additionally influence firm performance. These findings are in the shareholders interest and in favour of investor protection. The use of the postal ballot and the adoption of the whistle blower policy indicate the changing attitude of the Indian corporate sector.

Information Technology & Green Initiative – A tool for effective Corporate Governance

Corporate Governance reform across the globe has assumed greater importance in the last couple of years. The global reform effort and policy maker’s interest in corporate governance has accelerated in the wake of advancement of information technology. The increased performance and availability at reduced cost of microelectronics, fiber optics, voice and video compression, fast-packet switching and high-density storage technology could be utilized to make corporate governance more efficient. Technology convergence due to digitization, wide band transmission, 3G Technology, compression technologies and standard development lends support for the low cost provision for compliance such as video conferencing, e-filing of documents which may be accessed by public as well as stakeholders and electronic voting instead of postal ballot etc. The so called advancement of Information Technology has prompted Ministry of Corporate Governance to take Green Initiative, which could prove useful in implementing effective corporate governance practices and at the same time tackle issues like environmental hazards, global warming, lack of transparency and cost involved in paper work.

Fåhraeus medal presentation 2007

We are going to the most important part of our meeting. The European Society of Clinical Hemorheology has been entrusted with the FAHRAEUS MEDAL AWARD to be awarded to an outstanding leading scientist in the field of Clinical Hemorheology. All the members of the Council and of the Advisory Committee of the European Society of Clinical Hemorheology and the previous recipients of the Award have been entitled to vote. Every one of them has been invited to vote at the procedure, provided by us during the first and the second ballot. The nomination of the candidates and the election has resulted from two secret postal ballots. All the collected anonymous closed envelopes have been opened in an official way at the presence of all the members of the Bulgarian Society of Biorheology and the names of the candidates, receiving the greatest number of nominations have been calculated during the first and the second ballot. It is my pleasure and a great honor to present you the name of the winner and the eleventh Fahraeus Medalist who is Professor Sandro Forconi – the President of the European Society of Clinical Hemorheology. Saying this I would like to invite Professor Jean-Francois Stoltz for laudatio.

Not All ‘Second-Order’ Contests are the Same: Turnout and Party Choice at the Concurrent 2004 Local and European Parliament Elections in England

The European Parliament elections in June 2004 coincided with local elections in many parts of England. In four regions of the country these elections were conducted entirely by postal ballots; in four other regions traditional methods of polling were used. Overall turnout was higher where all-postal voting was in place, but having local in addition to European elections made an independent and significant contribution to the level of electoral participation in all postal and non-postal regions alike. The pattern of party choice at the two types of contest also varied considerably. The three major political parties together took a much larger share of the overall vote at the local than at the European elections, and each independently ‘lost’ a sizeable number of its local votes to smaller parties. Aggregate level analysis suggests that voters assess the importance of electoral contests along a continuum and, in Britain in 2004 at least, treated local elections as less ‘second-order’ than pan-European ones.

E-Voting as the Magic Ballot?

In post-industrial societies the use of the Internet for multiple functions in commerce and government has generated debate about whether the introduction of e-voting could reduce the costs of casting a ballot and therefore promote electoral participation. The argument developed in this paper makes three claims: first, the evidence from the distribution of Internet access in the 15 EU member states confirms that, at least in the short-term, the impact of introducing e-voting into elections to the European parliament could probably deepen and worsen the existing socioeconomic gap. Second, even if we assume that use of the Internet gradually normalizes across the European population, there are still good reasons to be skeptical about any potential revolutionary benefits from e-voting on turnout. E-voting at home or work can be seen as analogous to the use of voting facilities exemplified by postal ballots, and the evidence suggests that the use of such facilities has had little or no impact on turnout. Instead, it is argued, the most important role of information technology in democracy lies in its potential capacity to strengthen the public sphere. As such the debate about e-voting may well prove largely irrelevant to the primary political impact of the Internet on democracy within the European Union.

Homeland citizenship policies and the status of third country nationals in the European Union

Discussion of the status of third country nationals in the European Union tends to focus on member state and/or European Community law and policy. These debates need to take into account the policies and interests of the sending states as well. They are central to the decisions of third country nationals to naturalise and integrate into host countries. We examine the citizenship and naturalisation policies of the three most important EU receiving states: Germany, the UK, and France. We explore the policies of their leading source countries regarding dual nationality, naturalisation abroad, renunciation of home country citizenship, mandatory military service, postal ballots and other policies plausibly linked to migrant naturalisation decisions. We find that the naturalisation policies of the host countries are converging, though not in an obviously liberal or restrictive direction. On the other hand, there is a strong pattern among the sending states. They have eliminated most of the disincentives for their nationals acquiring host country citizenship. At the same time they permit expatriates to retain their homeland nationality and most other rights of citizenship. We argue that these are strategic moves on the part of sending governments to first, ease the plight of nationals living permanently abroad, second, maintain ties with those who would expatriate in any case, and third, facilitate the use of the expatriate community as a means of political leverage against host governments.

Harmonized bionomenclature – a recipe for disharmony

Many taxonomists, from both the botanical and zoological sides of the fence, will have been startled find that proposals are well advanced change radically the way in which they practice their science. Hawksworth (1995) has provided a synopsis of steps towards the writing and possible adoption of a unified International code of bionomenclature, arising from a number of small workshops held in the years between 1985 and 1994. His mandate for doing this was the establishment of a Special Committee on Harmonization of the Codes, set up after minimal discussion at the nomenclature sessions of the International Botanical Congress in Yokohama in 1993. It arose out of a proposal by Hawksworth (1993) alter Art. 65 of the Berlin extend the consideration of homonymy of generic names beyond the botanical Code. In coining new generic names botanists were include consideration of the Approved List of Bacterial Names and any zoological names on proposed future Lists of Names in Use accorded special protected status by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. This proposal was heavily rejected in the postal ballot prior the Yokohama congress, but was resurrected at the formal meeting. The brief discussion revealed that the major concerns in raising the matter were twofold: the problem experienced by some taxonomists in having differentiate between identical generic names legitimately in use for both plant and animal groups under the botanical and zoological Codes, and the problems experienced by those working in some protist groups where organisms can legitimately bear two correct names, depending on whether one decides treat them as plants or animals. The Special Committee on Harmonization of the Codes was set up with the mandate to investigate all borderline problems between the biological Codes, and the special problems of all borderline groups, and eventually all questions of harmonization of the Codes that were felt be soluble (Greuter & al., 1994: 193). Most of those present at the meeting where this Committee was established presumably believed that they were voting on a mechanism bring the Codes closer together in relatively minor matters where disruption existing names and practices would be minimal. At no time was it suggested that the process would involve complete scrapping of the existing Codes and the writing of a new Harmonized Code involving elements of all of them.

Ballots and Union Government in the 1980s

AbstractDuring the 1980s the Conservative government argued that trade unions' leaders and policies did not accurately reflect the views of their members. Accordingly, the Trade Union Act 1984 required that all voting members of union principal executive committees be periodically elected by individual members in a workplace or postal ballot, and the Employment Act 1988 required that all executive committee members and all officers in attendance for the purpose of policy deliberation and formulation be periodically elected by members in a postal ballot. This legislation has left an indelible mark upon the processes of union government but it has failed to initiate a transformation in the political complexion of union leadership or a redirection of union policy.

The genera of Cactaceae: progress towards consensus

Summary. After further debate and a postal ballot of specialists, the IOS Working Party has revised its 1986 ‘consensus’ list of accepted genera. The new list totals 93, i.e. seven more than that of 1986. The synopsis of genera is accompanied by a comprehensive index of generic names, an explanation of the ballot procedure and edited commentary on the proposals ballotted, summaries of recently published tribal classifications, and relevant bibliography.