Turnout Trends Research Articles

Upper extremity emergencies during SARS-COV-2 pandemic: Turnout trends.

IntroductionDuring the SARS-COV-2 pandemic and consequent government measures to prevent the overwhelming of public hospitals, emergency department (ED) orthopaedic turnout was significantly altered. This study compared the turnout of patients with upper extremity (UE) and hand & wrist (H&W) emergencies during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, with the same period of 2019, in the public and private sector.Material-MethodsData from a two-month period [March 23, 2020 (application of severe restrictions of civilian circulation) to May 18, 2020 (two weeks after lockdown cessation)] were collected from a public-university hospital and a private hospital and were compared with data from the same “normal” period in 2019.ResultsDuring the pandemic, the number of patients with orthopaedic, UE, and H&W problems was significantly reduced by 57.09%, 49.77%, 49.92% respectively (p<0.001) compared to 2019. However, the ratios of UE/total orthopaedic emergencies and of H&W/total orthopaedic emergencies increased significantly during the pandemic from 37.17% to 43.32% and from 25.07% to 29.15% (p=0.006 and p<0.001) respectively, compared to 2019. In the private sector, the turnout was increased for patients with UE problems (8.82%, p=0.67) and H&W problems (24.39%, p=0.3), while in the public sector the turnout was significantly decreased for UE (49.77%, p<0.001) and H&W problems (49.92%, p<0.001) in 2020 compared to 2019.DiscussionThe extent of lockdown was unprecedented in recent years. The reduction of orthopaedic, UE and H&W emergencies during lockdown can be attributed to the fear of contracting the virus in the hospitals and even more in hospitals serving as COVID-19 reference centers. Despite the decrease -in absolute numbers- of patients, the increased percentages of UE to total orthopaedic and of H&W to total orthopaedic emergencies in 2020 in both hospitals, reflect the new hobbies’ uptake and the increase of domestic accidents during the lockdown, despite overall activity decrease, and underline the necessity of presence of hand surgeons in the EDs. This is one of the very few population-based studies worldwide to show trends in incidence of different injuries of the UE at a regional level during the pandemic, and its results could affect future health care policies.

Differential Turnout Decline in Norway and Sweden: A Generation of Apathy or Alienation?

Voter turnout has been in a trend of gradual decline in most established democracies in recent decades and the reasons for this are by no means fully understood. While most studies agree that the trend is largely driven by younger generations voting less than older cohorts, the individual‐level mechanisms of their declining propensity to vote are still disputed. A major distinction in the literature on democratic developments is that between theories of political apathy and political alienation: whether citizens are less interested in politics or still interested but instead estranged from their political systems. An interesting test for these different explanations can be found in Scandinavia: While Norway and Sweden have intimate historical, political and cultural similarities, Norway has been experiencing gradual turnout decline, while there has been no clear overall trend in Sweden. This study uses a combined dataset of over 50.000 respondents from 31 national election studies in these two countries from 1956–2013 to test the relative roles of apathy, alienation and generational dynamics in explaining these different trends in turnout. The results indicate that apathy has been declining while alienation has been rising in both countries. However, in Norway, those who are more apathetic today are much less likely to vote than apathetic citizens were in the past. The youngest generations are also significantly more apathetic and less likely to vote in Norway than in Sweden. These dynamics appear to account for the larger trend of turnout decline in Norway.

California's Voter Registration Rates

Voter turnout is understood in two different ways. The easiest to measure is turnout as a share of already-registered voters. For understanding who is represented in our electorate, the more accurate indicator is voter turnout as a share of eligible voters. The following graph demonstrates the historical turnout trends for California’s electorate, seen through both of these lenses. Over the last forty years, registered turnout in the state has fluctuated significantly. State voter turnout rates have also varied significantly by county. A key contributor to these uneven turnout rates is the state’s ability to successfully register voters across its counties, ultimately impacting democratic representation.

Education, inequality and electoral participation

In comparative terms, Italian electoral turnout has been very high since 1946. However, during the five elections from 1994 to 2008, turnout dropped more steeply than it did over the previous 12 elections from 1946 to 1992. The difference between maximum turnout in the early 1950s and the 2008 election was about 12%, and most of this decline (8%) occurred in the period 1992–2008. This paper finds robust evidence that individual and contextual social inequalities have been key factors in the recent fall of turnout. In particular our results clearly suggest that contextual social inequality lowers the turnout of less-educated voters and leaves it unaffected among high-educated ones. The recent decline in turnout may therefore be indicative of an important shift towards more unequal political participation. These findings are consistent with data showing that the post-1994 parties performed very poorly as mobilisation agencies compared with the old parties. Indeed, according to Franklin (2004), turnout trends can be effectively explained by changes in institutional rules and by the degree of electoral competitiveness. This paper suggests that, in order to explain turnout trends, the interactive effects of social and individual inequality should also be considered.