Voting Rates Research Articles

DECENTRALIZED ELECTRONIC VOTING WITH ETHEREUM BLOCKCHAIN IN DEMOCRATIC AND POLITICAL ELECTIONS

The Ethereum blockchain-based electronic voting (e-voting) systems can emerge as a viable strategy in this era of contemporary democracies to revolutionize political elections and augment the efficacy of the electoral process. There are myriad advantages that the Ethereum blockchain has to offer, from fairness to increased voting rates. Unlike traditional voting protocols, the Ethereum blockchain can assure substantial cost savings and eliminate the necessity for electoral intermediaries. The use of the Ethereum blockchain in political contexts also ensures that elections are held with integrity while preserving the voters’ privacy. Due to its popularity, provision of smart contracts logic, and various promising advantages, this systematic review aims to examine the potential deployment of decentralized e-voting systems integrated with Ethereum blockchain technology for democratic political elections. A systematic literature review (SLR) and the PICO approach, which stands for population, intervention, control, and outcomes, were adopted in this study to systematically analyze the existing literature. Key technological approaches identified in the voting system include the hybrid blockchain and privacy-preserving score voting. Among the noteworthy findings are the following: while adoption and complexity remain challenges across numerous e-voting frameworks, scalability, end-to-end security, enhanced efficiency, and effectiveness are key benefits. An exploration into the prospective future innovations, such as the integration of artificial intelligence and big data analytics into the Ethereum blockchain, was also included to further improve the reliability of the e-voting systems. It is believed that the Ethereum blockchain has a promising transformative impact on electoral politics and democratic processes, presenting a ray of hope for future elections.

SISTEM PEMBERIAN KREDIT CEPAT AMAN (KCA) DI MASA PANDEMI COVID-19 PADA PT PEGADAIAN CABANG MEDAN PETISAH

PT Pegadaian is a non-bank credit institution that provides credit distribution services to the public. The aim of this study is to find out if there are any changes in the system of credit granting during the current COVID-19 pandemic and their influence on the rate of votes in the Pegadaian PT Branch Field of Petisah. As for the data used in this final task, there are primary data and secondary data. Data collection techniques include interviews, observations, and documentation. The data analysis techniques used are qualitative and descriptive. Based on the results of the analysis carried out, it can be concluded that the system of rapid granting of safe credit (KCA) at PT Pegadaian Branch Field Petisah during the pandemic period has undergone changes in accordance with government regulations that restrict mobility and activity in public areas and have an influence on the rate of number of customers in recent years.

A REVIEW OF GREEN POLICY FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Environmental problems and the destruction of nature have been seen as one of the most important problems faced by humans and all other species. Since the rise of industrial capitalism, environmental problems have continued to be relevant. Accordantly, industrialization has been the absolute root of evil for green politics. In other words, the critique of industrialization represents the theme of the green movement. Green politics with anti-industrialism shapes itself over principles such as ecological limits of growth, contentment with less, reduction of consumption and population, respect for nature, generic justice, decentralization, rejection of discrimination, ecologically conscious citizens, creating projections of green ideals on daily life, small-scale technology and topicality. Green idea which was previously limited to environment and nature protectionism, has radicalized and developed its own depictions of "heaven" with green society imaginations which is in a sense an inherent feature of ideologies. On the other hand, green politics differs from other ideologies by putting the nature to the point of its vision and action. The Green movement, which accelerated its institutionalization activities at the end of the twentieth century, reached remarkable voting rates, especially in European countries, and succeeded in creating a universal public opinion on the issues that it could bend the policies. Since then green formations and contents have been observed in Turkey as well. However, ecological trends have lagged behind the development targets from right to left of the political spectrum.

Prediction of occupant thermal state via infrared thermography and explainable AI

Accurate and real-time assessment of occupant thermal comfort can provide a solid foundation for efficient air conditioning operations. Existing studies already show the feasibility of using contactless technologies for thermal comfort prediction assisted by machine learning algorithms. However, the lack of transparency in machine learning often weakens user trust. This study performs explainable AI analysis to explore the potential of infrared imaging in thermal comfort evaluation. Specifically, an investigation was carried out in a climatic chamber, and infrared cameras were used to collect facial temperature data. Five popular ensemble tree models were employed to construct prediction models, and explainable AI analysis was performed using SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) theory. Results show that combining additional facial information can significantly improve the overall model performance, and certain facial attributes present high contributions based on SHAP values. Combining facial features with explainable AI provides a convincing basis for thermal comfort assessment. The high SHAP values of facial features can also contribute to finding selective occupants with low neutral voting rates, providing evidence for customized cooling or heating from building systems.

Do STEM Students Vote?12

Pundits, politicians, and academics have long worried about potentially low rates of civic participation among STEM-oriented students. Does studying STEM actually decrease the odds that young people will be actively involved in democracy? To answer this question, we created a dataset of over 23 million students in the United States, matched to national validated voting records. This novel dataset is the largest known individual-level dataset in the United States, connecting high school and college students to voting outcomes. It also contains a rich set of demographic and academic variables, to account for many of the common issues related to students’ selection into STEM coursework. We consider two measures of STEM participation: Advanced Placement (AP) exam taking in high school and college major. Using both measures, we find that, across model specifications, the estimated relationships between STEM and voting are small in magnitude—about the same effect size as a single get-out-the-vote mailer. Our analyses demonstrate that, on average, marginally more STEM coursework in high school and college does not contribute noticeably to the low voting rates among young people in the United States.

The Effect of Macro-Economic Indicators on Voter Behavior in Turkey: An Analysis on General and Local Elections of 1980-2019

The main actor of voter behavior is the human and human behavior under the identity of voter. For this reason, voter behavior emerges as a product of a complex process as it can be influenced by different factors. In this respect, voter behavior, which constitutes the most measurable behavior type of political participation, requires a multidimensional approach. This study aims to determine the sensitivity of political party vote rates to changes in macroeconomic indicators such as inflation, growth and unemployment rates in general and local elections held in Turkey between 1980-2019. The sensitivity of voters to economic indicators is analyzed within the framework of the economic approach and the responsibility hypothesis. In this study, econometric analyses were conducted with the help of Eviews 10 program and necessary tests were applied. In the study, the existence of correlation relationship between variables is revealed by horizontal cross-section dependence test. The results of the horizontal cross-section dependence test show that voters who vote in general and local elections are sensitive to variables such as unemployment, inflation and economic growth.

Performance analysis of cryptography algorithms for implementation of secured cloud based online voting system

Any democratic country intends to conduct the elections in a smooth and fair manner such all the citizens of the country participate and elect their leader who can involve himself/herself for the development of the country. Inspite of wide publicity and measures taken for ensuring the participation of all the citizens in the election process, most of the countries are unable achieve 100% voting rate in elections. Among the many reasons for reduction in voting rate, migration of the voters is one of the major reasons for reduction in voting rate. Even though technology and online services have been used in almost all the aspects of day-to-day activities, online features have not been utilized in the process of voting during elections. This paper tries to analyze the performance of the cloud based secured framework by implementing it using PHP and mySQL. Security of the framework is implemented using rivest shamir adleman (RSA), advanced encryption standard (AES) and Blowfish cryptography algorithms.

Rooftop solar, electric vehicle, and heat pump adoption in rural areas in the United States

The deployment of residential rooftop solar, electric vehicles (EVs), and heat pumps is critical to meet climate goals. We evaluate historical community- and household-level technology adoption patterns in rural areas, and explore associations with housing, socioeconomic, demographic, political, spatial, and energy equity characteristics. We reveal several emergent patterns and disparities in rural technology adoption. We find that higher educational attainment and democratic voting rates are significant predictors of adoption across all residential technologies. Specifically, EV adoption shows the highest association with democratic voting rates. We also find that rooftop solar adoption is most significantly inversely associated with energy burden, while there is a high degree of spatial dependence in heat pump adoption. Rooftop solar and EV adoption are particularly correlated at household, community, and state levels. Findings suggest that designing policies and programs that promote information diffusion, target low-income renters, and are tailored to the geographic and political context may together increase technology adoption rates and ensure more equitable diffusion. By identifying the factors that influence technology adoption in rural areas, we aim to inform the development of policies and programs that can facilitate the widespread deployment of clean energy technologies and contribute to the achievement of climate goals.

Revisiting sectarianism in Iraq: Changing attitudes of Sunnis and Shias towards voting, social trust and government

After 2003, Iraq experienced political, social and violent sectarianism. Scholars who studied sectarianism in Iraq tried to explain it through events, narratives and official statements. However, it has not been possible to understand the impact of the sectarian identity of Sunnis and Shias on their political and social behaviour. This study aims to measure that impact by asking: how has sectarianism changed in Iraq over time from the perspective of public opinion – increase or decrease, and why? For a deeper understanding, some demographic factors, such as age, education and gender, are considered to measure how the sectarian identity has affected the behaviour of Iraqis in voting, interpersonal trust, and trusting the government and the army. By using the surveys conducted by the Arab Barometer from 2011 to 2022, it was possible to compare the responses of the public by sect and have interesting findings. In general, Sunnis and Shias have exchanged their roles after 2013. Until 2013, Shias had tended to vote and trust local and national governments more than Sunnis. However, since 2019, the surveys show that Sunnis have had greater rates of voting and trust those governments than the Shias. Also, since 2019, the interpersonal trust between Sunnis and Shias has improved more than before, which can support the social cohesion between people who belong to different sects.

Democratizing urban governance through mayoral term limits: Quasi-experimental evidence from a reform in Chilean municipalities

Term limits on elected mayors are often advocated because they eliminate the incumbency advantage and promote higher representativeness and citizen participation through a more open and reinvigorated electoral competition in local governments. We examine whether key dimensions of local democracy (election competitiveness, turnout, invalid voting, descriptive representation of women) are affected by the imposition of term limits. This article uses a quasi-experimental technique (difference-in-differences design) which leverages a unique and rare institutional reform in Chile that exogenously imposed term limits on some - but not all - mayors in 2020. The as-good-as random assignment of municipalities to either group allows to exploit comparisons which yield robust causal estimates. The overall contribution of term limits to local democracy has been positive because they promote electoral competition, the emergence of female candidates and voter participation, as well as reduce invalid voting rates.

Political Priorities, Voting, and Political Action Committee Engagement of Emergency Medicine Trainees: A National Survey.

Medicine is increasingly influenced by politics, but physicians have historically had lower voter turnout than the general public. Turnout is even lower for younger voters. Little is known about the political interests, voting activity, or political action committee (PAC) involvement of emergency physicians in training. We evaluated EM trainees' political priorities, use of and barriers to voting, and engagement with an emergency medicine (EM) PAC. Resident/medical student Emergency Medicine Residents' Association members were emailed a survey between October-November 2018. Questions involved political priorities, perspective on single-payer healthcare, voting knowledge/behavior, and EM PACs participation. We analyzed data using descriptive statistics. Survey participants included 1,241 fully responding medical students and residents, with a calculated response rate of 20%. The top three healthcare priorities were as follows: 1) high cost of healthcare/price transparency; 2) decreasing the number of uninsured; and 3) quality of health insurance. The top EM-specific issue was ED crowding and boarding. Most trainees (70%) were supportive of single-payer healthcare: "somewhat favor" (36%) and "strongly favor" (34%). Trainees had high rates of voting in presidential elections (89%) but less frequent use of other voting options: 54% absentee ballots; 56% voting in state primary races; and 38% early voting. Over half (66%) missed voting in prior elections, with work cited as the most frequent (70%) barrier. While overall, half of respondents (62%) reported awareness of EM PACs, only 4% of respondents had contributed. The high cost of healthcare was the top concern among EM trainees. Survey respondents had a high level of knowledge of absentee and early voting but less frequently used these options. Encouragement of early and absentee voting can improve voter turnout of EM trainees. Concerning EM PACs, there is significant room for membership growth. With improved knowledge of the political priorities of EM trainees, physician organizations and PACs can better engage future physicians.

The power of minority shareholders: evidence from voting on the related party transaction proposals in China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of minority shareholders’ attendance at shareholders meetings on related party transaction (RPT) proposals.Design/methodology/approachThis paper empirically examines the impact of minority shareholders’ attendance in shareholders’ meetings on the voting results of RPT proposals based on the hand-collected voting data of Chinese listed companies.FindingsThe empirical result shows a significant positive relationship between the attendance of minority shareholders and the nonagreeable vote rate of RPT proposals. Moreover, this positive relationship is strengthened when the corporate governance is poor, the negative media coverage is high, and the on-site attendance of minority shareholders is high. Conversely, good corporate governance and high positive media coverage can weaken this positive correlation. The additional analysis reveals that the number of RPTs and better market performance in the future can be significantly reduced when minority shareholders express their nonagreeable voice actively.Originality/valueThis paper analytically and empirically examines the impact of minority shareholders’ attendance in shareholders’ meetings on the voting results of RPT proposals based on the hand-collected voting data of Chinese listed companies. It provides direct and convincing evidence for the impact of minority shareholders’ attendance and exercise of voting rights in shareholders’ meetings on the outcome of RPT proposals. It complements the literature on the governance effects of minority shareholders’ attendance in shareholders’ meetings to exercise their voting rights in emerging capital markets. This study has practical value by guiding minority investors to participate actively in corporate governance.

Study on thermal comfort of aloe viscose seamless knits

Aloe viscose fiber is rich in a variety of active ingredients, with excellent moisturizing and antibacterial properties, and gradually widely used in clothing production. Therefore, this paper focuses on the thermal comfort of aloe viscose seamless knitted clothing, 15 sets of seam knitting sets with different yarn blending ratios and knitted structures were designed. thermal manikin was used in artificial climate to test the thermal resistance and the voting rate of whole body thermal sensation. SPSS two-factor variance analysis and Duncan multiple comparison method were used to analyze the experimental data. The results show that the difference of veil material and knitted structure has an impact on clothing thermal comfort. In all the samples, the veil is made of 100:0 aloe viscose/viscose fiber, and the thermal comfort of the seam knitting garment w Abstract: In order to study the thermal comfort performance of aloe viscose fiber seamless knitted clothing, 15 sets of seam knitting sets with different yarn blending ratios and knitted structures were designed. Thermal manikin was used in artificial climate to test the thermal resistance and the voting rate of whole body thermal sensation. SPSS two-factor variance analysis and Duncan multiple comparison method were used to analyze the experimental data. The results show that the difference of veil material and knitted structure has an impact on clothing thermal comfort. In all the samples, the veil is made of 100:0 aloe viscose/viscose fiber, and the thermal comfort of the seam knitting garment with the knitted structure of 1 + 3 false rib fabric is the best, with the sets thermal resistance of 0.289 m2 K/W and the sets PMV value of −1.75. It provides theoretical basis and guiding significance for the future production of aloe seamless knitted clothing with excellent thermal resistance.

Municipality size and political participation: evidence from Australia

ABSTRACT Structural reforms over the past several decades have seen the institution of local government in Australia become progressively less local. Primarily as a result of municipal amalgamation, the average population of Australia’s local governments has more than doubled since the early 1990s. The democratic implications of this de-localisation, however, have been severely understudied. This article addresses this gap by analysing the effect of municipality size on several modes of local political participation in the mainland capital city regions of Adelaide and Perth. Drawing on a quantitative analysis of primary survey and electoral data, this paper presents evidence of a negative relationship between municipality size and participation – as size increases, rates of voting, candidacy, contact with local representatives, and council meeting attendance decrease. The implications for local government’s input legitimacy and its role as a training ground for democracy – as well as options for ‘re-localising’ local politics – are discussed.

1980 Darbesinden 28 Şubat Post Modern Darbe Süreci ve Sonrası Giresun’da Milli Görüş Hareketi: Refah Partisi

Necmettin Erbakan, supported in Turkey by those who considered themselves as more conservative and religious, had the opportunity to serve the people of Turkey in the capacity of Deputy Prime Minister before 1980. Erbakan's new discourse had won him the favor of the public; however, in the wake of the 1980 military coup, his party was closed down and he, along with most of his close colleagues, was banned from politics. After his party, which was a party with a cause rather than an ordinary one, was closed down, he tried to keep his sympathizers united and active by developing various arguments in order to preserve his electorate in the newly developing conditions. In conjunction with the transition from martial law to democracy, the National Vision Movement continued its course in the political arena with the Welfare Party. Necmettin Erbakan cultivated a new discourse in politics with the motto of "Fair Order" by successfully analyzing the economic developments in the world after 1980. His promise to make Turkey a strong and prominent country, his ideals of Islamic unity, his discourse of nationalism, anti-imperialism and anti-Zionism were accepted by the public. Additionally, his more comprehensive and Pan-Islamist stance compared to the religious jamaats and sects, and the fact that he undertook to be the voice of the people who suffered in the slums following rural-to-urban migration, strengthened the movement. The Motherland Party, founded by Turgut Ozal, who had been the National Salvation Party's Izmir candidate for the parliament before 1980, faced some difficulties while coming into power after 1980, following the military administration. Erbakan surpassed those difficulties, acquired a position in the government as the prime minister of the coalition in 1996 and served the nation. This study explores the establishment and structuring of the Welfare Party, a continuation of the National Vision Movement, in Giresun, as well as the process of its coming to power and later being removed from it. The first elections the Welfare Party took part in were the local elections of 1984, and although the votes it received were below the country average that year, the party increased its vote rates in all subsequent elections and received more votes than the Turkey average in Giresun. The reasons behind this success are that women, who had not been active in politics before 1980, began to participate more, the media was used more effectively, and Giresun was not affected by the conflict between religious sects and politics. This study will examine the efforts of the National Youth Foundation, established as the youth organization of the movement, and other non-governmental organizations during and after the February 28, 1997 post-modern coup process in the context of Giresun.

Civilian national service programs can powerfully increase youth voter turnout

Low rates of youth voting are a feature of contemporary democracies the world over, with the United States having some of the lowest youth turnout rates in the world. However, far too little is known about how to address the dismal rates of youth voter participation found in many advanced democracies. In this paper, we examine the causal effect of a potentially scalable solution that has attracted renewed interest today: voluntary national service programs targeted at the youth civilian population. Leveraging the large pool of young people who apply each year to participate in the Teach For America (TFA) program-a prominent voluntary national service organization in the United States that integrates college graduates into teaching roles in low-income communities for 2 y-we examine the effect of service participation on voter turnout. To do so, we match TFA administrative records to large-scale nationwide voter files and employ a fuzzy regression discontinuity design around the recommended admittance cutoff for the TFA program. We find that serving as a teacher in the Teach For America national service program has a large effect on civic participation-substantially increasing voter turnout rates among applicants admitted to the program. This effect is noticeably larger than that of previous efforts to increase youth turnout. Our results suggest that civilian national service programs targeted at young people have great promise in helping to narrow the stubborn and enduring political engagement gap between younger and older citizens.

Political Transnationalism: Factors Associated With Immigrants’ Voting in Their Home Country Elections

Political transnationalism, compared with other forms of immigrant transnationalism, and its relationship with assimilation into American society, remains largely unexplored. Using immigrants’ voting in their home countries as an example, New Immigrant Survey data, including that of immigrants who became permanent residents in 2003–2004, were analyzed. The dependent variable was immigrants’ voting in their home country elections, and the independent variables included assimilation, human capital, past political behavior, and their region of origin. Based on the bivariate analysis, transnational voting rates differ by immigrants’ age, race/ethnicity, region of origin, educational level, English proficiency, assimilation, and previous voting behavior. The findings of logistic regression confirmed that assimilation is negatively associated with immigrants’ voting in the home country elections, whereas human capital is positively related to transnational voting among immigrants. Voting momentum was the most influential factor in immigrants’ voting in home country elections. Immigrants’ region of origin was another significant predictor of transnational voting. Future studies must examine immigrant political transnationalism by including national-level factors transcending individual attributes, and host countries other than the US.

Social Capital Measurement in Turkiye: Creating an Index by Province

The aim of the study is to create a social capital index on the basis of 81 provinces covering the years between 2007-2018 in Turkiye. While creating the social capital index, the method of creating the social capital index obtained from 2 networks and 2 norm variables, which was also used in previous studies, was applied. While the number of foundations and associations on a provincial basis was used as network variables, the rate of voting in parliamentary elections and the rate of response to WVS surveys were used as norm variables. In order to perform principal component analysis, the collected data was entered into the SPSS 23 package program, and the relevant analysis was performed. For this purpose, principal component analysis was applied for the years 2007, 2011, and 2018, when parliamentary general elections were held, and the first component that emerged was taken as an indicator of social capital index. Since social capital does not change in a short period of time for countries, regions, and cities, the index values for the years between 2007, 2011 and 2018 were created with the linear interpolation method using the data, as applied in similar studies. Positive ones among the index values created on the basis of provinces indicate a high level of social capital, while negative values indicate a low level of social capital. When the social capital index values of 2007 and 2018 are examined, it is observed that the social capital levels of the provinces have increased over the years, although there has not been much change in the index values on a provincial basis over the years.

Experiences of Civic Participation Among Older African American and Latinx Immigrant Adults in the Context of an Ageist and Racist Society.

In the past 20years, older adults' civic participation has received considerable attention. Current literature shows that rates of voting and volunteering have been consistently lower among African Americans and Latinx older adults compared to White older adults. However, little research has explored civic participation in the context of historical structures of inequality that influence how Black and Latinx populations participate in civic life. I draw from an intersectional life course perspective and phenomenological methods to examine experiences of civic participation through participants' lens. Findings draw our attention to how race/racism and age/ageism shape how, where, and with whom participants participate. Findings demonstrate how civic participation is embedded within systems of inequality that inform individual behavior as well as available opportunities for engagement. These findings call attention to the need to re-conceptualize and support civic participation that centers the experiences of historically ethnoracially oppressed populations.

Why So Little Strategic Voting in India?

Strategic voting is thought to underlie Duverger’s Law and lead to two-party outcomes in single-member district plurality (SMDP) systems. We examine the extent of strategic voting in the world’s most populous democracy, India, where frequent exceptions to Duverger’s Law have long puzzled political scientists. Using an original voter survey from the 2017 Uttar Pradesh state election, we find extremely low rates of strategic voting. Why? We show that the vast majority of respondents believe that their preferred party is likely to win in their constituency. For most voters, their partisan preferences overwhelmingly predict their beliefs about which party will win. Their election forecasts correspond to objective electoral outcomes only with respect to parties that they like less.