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University of Michigan Students Hack Prototype Voting Site

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A prototype voting website, developed by the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, that allows military personnel and overseas voters to cast election ballots online has been hacked by UM students. The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics recently asked outsiders to try and find defects in the system which officials had hoped to use for the upcoming November election.

University of Michigan students rose to the occasion, successfully hacking the system and programming the ballot submission page to play the UM fight song, “The Victors,” upon successful submission.

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics director of information services, Paul Stenbjorn, said he didn’t bother listening to the UM fight song, but that it was exactly the kind of “hacking” help they were looking for to ensure the site’s security and credibility.

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“To be quite honest I didn’t listen to it. I was less concerned with what the file was. Just knowing it was there was there was enough. This is why we did this. This was one of the objectives.”

Because of the UM students infiltration efforts, officials were able to pinpoint the technical vulnerabilities and re-launch an improved site soon after the hack was discovered.

Overseas voters can still download ballots from the site but will not be able to cast them online as the department had originally planned. Instead, they will be required to mail, fax, or e-mail the completed ballots. The site is still a vast improvement over the voting systems of the past few years which included logistical nightmares like mailing ballots directly to overseas voters. However, Stenbjorn hopes to be able to completely restore the online ballot-casting feature by 2011.

 

 

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Voting

September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Voting is an important part of the democratic process.  Voting is a method for a group such as a meeting or an electorate to make a decision or express an opinion — often following discussions, debates or election campaigns.  Voting is at the core of health policy decisions that impact the health of  the public.  VOTING IS BOTH a right and a responsibility.  Voting is free and it’s every citizen’s right.
Election night can be as confusing as it is exciting.  Election officials are far more worried about mass cheating.  Election administrators and the American people must see beyond the critical hype and hypothetical worst-case scenarios and vote for common sense.  Elections may take place at many different times, but in the United States, general elections (for federal officials) are held every two years in even-numbered years, on the Tuesday that falls between November 2 and 8.
Voters’ preferences are now data-entered into computer systems, which then process the recorded votes to determine the results of the election.  Voters not wishing to use the “above-the-line-voting” option maintain the entitlement to indicate preferences for individual candidates; this is referred to as below-the-line voting.  Voters need a reason to make the effort to vote, and young people need to understand the importance of the election results to their own lives.  Voters have a lot of control over how and when they vote.  Voter registration postmark deadlines vary from 30 days before the election to just a couple of days before the election.
Ballot papers are counted according to prescribed set of rules which prescribe the method used in the counting of the ballots and the distribution of preferences.  Ballot papers which are not marked according to the rules for voting are called informal votes.  Ballot papers cannot be counted if they are informal.  Ballots are tabulated, and the Kids Voting election results are reported to the media just like the adult results are.  Ballot screens are simple to use and user friendly
Register Voters In order for college students to vote, they’ll need to be registered.
Candidates can concentrate their campaigning energies on issues rather than encouraging voters to attend the poll.  Candidates could focus on converting voters, rather than trying to get them to the polls.  Candidates for office often proclaim that children are our future.
Voting is not an intrinsic obligation and the enforcement of the law would be an infringement of the citizens’ freedom associated with democratic elections.  Voting is not the fairest, most effective way to make decisions in a group.  Voting is one of the worst ways to make decisions in a group.  Voting is an effective and fair way to make some decisions.  Voting is often (and perhaps typically) unfair because voting systems are designed to exclude certain voices, but with an endowed sense of process legitimacy.  Voting is the foundation of our democracy.

Article By:   Mark Breck   11/3/2008

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Report on Voting Apathy

August 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Introduction

The percentage of people voting in General and European elections is steadily decreasing, and has been for many years. In 2005, 61.3% of the population voted in the General Elections. This has decreased from previous years, for example: 76% of the population voted in the General Elections in 1979.

Some of the reasons for people not voting in the 2001 General Election included: it is inconvenient, did not receive polling card/postal vote, didn’t know enough about parties/candidates, vote wouldn’t have made a difference, favoured party had no chance and don’t think voting is important.

Possible Solutions

Politicians are aiming to solve the problem of voting apathy in this country. Here are some solutions that could help improve turnouts in future General and Local Elections.

Make voting compulsory – In the United Kingdom we have voluntary participation, unlike countries such as Australia and Belgium where voting is compulsory. If voting was made compulsory, the outcome of the elections would be more accurate to what and who the population wants. If people are still apathetic when this law is in place, the consequences can be prosecution or a fine.

Incentives– Some people may be more encouraged to vote if they received something in return, such as a spot prize.

Different methods of voting – If there were more convenient ways to vote it may persuade more of the population to participate. Methods such as texting and emailing may appeal to certain groups of people, who find it inconvenient to go to a polling station or can’t get to a post box.

Propaganda – In World War One and World War Two, propaganda was used to promote an army career to young men. We already have forms political propaganda at election time that promotes the different parties. But as a solution for voting apathy, propaganda could spur on more people to make the effort to vote, or at least take more of an interest in political issues.

Change the day of voting – Traditionally, voting takes place on a Thursday, but perhaps if this day was changed to a Saturday, more people would be available and have the time to go to a polling station or post their postal vote.

Political rallies– This is more typically an American idea. In the United States presidential elections of 2008, candidates like Barack Obama and John McCain travelled to various places in America to involve people in the current Political affairs, and to attempt to win over the support of that particular state/region.

Opinion Poll Results

I created an opinion poll to see which solutions are most popular with a group of 20 people, all from different age groups and backgrounds. Here are the results of the poll.

Make voting compulsary – 35%

Incentives – 10%

Different methods of voting – 20%

Propaganda – 5%

Change the day of voting – 10%

Political rallies – 20%

The results of this opinion poll show that the majority of people would make voting compulsory. This is probably because it is quite a successful system in countries where participation is obligatory. Meanwhile, the least popular option was the use of propaganda with only one person choosing this solution. Perhaps this was the least popular solution as propaganda is associated with events in the past such as the World Wars and Nazi Germany, we don’t often see true Propaganda in these modern times.

Conclusion

Personally, I think the best solution to voting apathy is making voting compulsory. However, the reason that some people do not vote is because they cannot distinguish between certain parties, or they are fairly impartial up to a certain extent, so I would create a new option on the ballot paper, where people can select “None of the above”. Technically they are not voting, but they are still participating in Politics which is one of the main issues about apathy. If people expressed their wishes to not select a particular party then this informs the government that they maybe have to launch new surveys into why people don’t want to commit to a particular party. Also, I think that political rallies could be successful in this country. In the USA they are hugely popular with the American public, with thousands of people attending the results of the Presidential Election and Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony. Perhaps if there were more events like this in the UK, the population would express a greater interest in Politics, and therefore be more willing to vote.

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Americans Voting Behaviors In 2004 Presidential Election

July 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The importance of active civic participation is obvious for the future of a nation and a healthy democracy. In 2004 Presidential election, the republican candidate George Walker Bush won against John Kerry the democrat one. 50.8 percent of the voting ballots were devoted to Bush and 48.3 percent were devoted to Kerry. Also, Ralph Nader won less than 0.4 percent of the votes.
Bush and Kerry had close competitions and at the end Bush was chosen to be the president of the United States. Americans voting behaviors is the subject of this article. The first part of this article discusses people’s behaviors generally and the second part will be devoted to youth voting, specifically.

Different theories and models described Americans voting behaviors in 2004 presidential election. Following you will read about some reasons and models explaining Americans voting behaviors.

1.

Party identification model indicates party identification alongside with socialization. Americans are democrats, republicans or independent and party identifications are important in voting behaviors based on race, gender, education and income. In 2004 election men voted more for republicans and women voted for democrats. African Americans and other minorities also supported democrats. Those with less income voted for democrats as well. People who were less educated voted for republicans. These were based on party identifications, but there were people who voted for a certain candidate rather than the certain party.

2. Issue model which focuses on certain issues which effect on voting behaviors of people. Issues are different either domestic or universal. War, economy, health care, terrorism, security, moral values were important on people’s decisions.

Statistics indicate the most important elements as war in Iraq, terrorism and homeland security, jobs and unemployment, health care, federal budget and taxes. These were important issues in Americans decision making process.

3. Moral issues and voters’ decision Making process in the 2004 Presidential election were important. For example:” President Bush’s victory, the approval of every anti-gay marriage amendment on statewide ballots and an emphasis on ‘moral values’ among voters showed the power of churchgoing Americans in this election and threw the nation’s religious divide into stark relief.” Associated Press, November 4, 2004

4. Economic conditions, influence consumer confidence, also they influence both political evaluations and votes. But there is little sense of the origins of consumer confidence itself. Consumers are those who vote. Nation’s level of consumer confidence responds to objective economic conditions. Candidates who pay more attention to economic conditions can take measures to satisfy the voters. Politics is important for understanding consumer sentiment beyond what is known from economic conditions. It demonstrates a direct effect of political evaluations of the president’s management of the economy, the party of the president, extraordinary political events, and monetary policy; it also affects media coverage of the economy and consumer sentiment, after controlling for economic conditions. When news is positive, citizens give favorable evaluations; this happens naturally, it causes more positive sentiment. Understanding the political economy needs an emphasis on the causal effect of politics as well as economics. All these create different behaviors by the participants in the Presidential election as it happened in 2004.

5. Impact of personality must be considered in cognitive, behavioral, and affective political processes, too. One to talk about is the effects of the need to evaluate that is a personality trait and reflects a person’s proclivity to create and hold attitudes; people high in that are likely to make attitudes toward all sorts of objects and events. The data from the 1998 National Election Survey Pilot and the 2000 National Election Survey was shown to predict a variety of important attitude-relevant cognitive, behavioral, and affective political processes beyond holding attitudes, it could predict how many evaluative beliefs about candidates one held, the likelihood that a person would use party identification and issue stances to determine candidate preferences. It is important to know that the extent to which a person took part in political activism , the likelihood he voted or intended to vote would change and another thing, the extent to which a person used the news media for gathering information, and the intensity of emotional reactions that felt toward political candidates were effective as well. So the need to evaluate seems to play a significant role in shaping important political behavior, emotion, and cognition.

6. The effect of a subtle reminder of death on voting intentions for the 2004 U.S. presidential election has been considered. It is on the basis of terror management theory which was hypothesized that a mortality salience induction would increase support for President George W. Bush and decrease support for Senator John Kerry. It was late September 2004 and after a mortality salience or control induction; registered voters were asked which candidate they had intended to vote for. According the predictions, Senator John Kerry could receive substantially more votes than George Bush in the control condition, but Bush was favored over Kerry following a reminder of death, suggesting that President Bush’s re-election may have been facilitated by non-conscious concerns about mortality in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

7. New studies express a powerful empirical relationship between political discussion and political knowledge. And, there has been no clear discussion or demonstration of how political discussion translates into increased political knowledge. A study proposed three explanations on this matter; first, exposure, second anticipatory elaboration that creates links between work on uses, gratifications and news information processing, and third discussion-generated elaboration that focuses on how discussion itself can influence information processing. Some data from 2000 and a local community survey during the 1996 presidential election were used to test these three. The results suggest that the direct relationship between discussion and knowledge may be mediated through motivations and information processing behaviors. They also support the anticipatory elaboration and discussion-generated elaboration explanations while posing questions on the exposure explanation.

8. There was a model by the name of Jobs Model which was well done in 2004.It could predict the Presidential election well. The model was based on data available in August 2004 and its error was only 1.3 percentage points predicting the incumbent share of the two-party popular vote (Lewis-Beck and Tien 2004). On the other hand the median forecast from seven teams of statistical modelers was off 2.6 percentage points (Campbell 2004, 734). It is believed that the Jobs Model was more correct since it broadened measurement of economic performance that is a conceptual variable lying at the core of most of these efforts. It argues that the changing nature of the American economy required attention to a hitherto neglected variable which is job creation.

9. It is the early years of new millennium in politics so the machinery of the “old politics” that was centered on a party-orientation is being replaced by computers of the “new politics” which is centered on an image manufacturing-orientation. It goes with highly integrated marketing strategy that is driven by a candidate’s inner circle of advisors who now control the money and message of both the party and candidate organization. It leads to a very easy transition from election to governing and it happens that the top advisors during the campaign become top advisors to the winners and the key architects of the party administration. All of the developed marketing techniques and means that have been used in politics over the past several years are becoming more sharply focused on one central theme, and that is to produce a winning image for the leader and his/her party.

Youth voting

There are reports that in 1971, 18- to 20- year olds gained the right to vote, and 50 percent of young adults aged 18 to 24 voted in the 1972 presidential election. But voting among young adults has dropped significantly, causing concern among lawmakers and other policy makers.
“The percentage of youth ages 18 to 24 who reported voting and registering to vote was higher in the 2004 presidential election year than in 1996 or 2000 (42 percent reported voting in 2004, compared with 32 percent in both 1996 and 2000).”But, the percentage was lower than when 18- to 20- year olds first gained the right to vote in 1972. Fifty-nine percent of youth had registered to vote in 1972, and only 52 percent registered to vote in 2004. In 1972, 50 percent of youth voted, compared with 42 percent in 2004.

The reasons for declines in voting express that many youth feel uninformed about politics and the electoral process. A study found that one third of high school seniors lack a basic understanding of how the American government operates.

Another report by the National Association of Secretaries of State also got that youth believe that government and elections are not relevant to things about which they care. It has been suggested that this belief elaborates why many prefer to engage in community service, which is actually developing more and more.

Differences by the type of elections, ages, gender, race/ethnicity of voters:

There are differences by type of elections, too.

Fewer youth vote in non-presidential election years, comparing presidential election years. For example seventeen percent of youth voted in the 2002, non-presidential election year, whereas 42 percent voted in the 2004 presidential election year.

Females are more likely than males to report both registering to vote and voting. It is not a lot different, anyhow. In the 2004 election, 55 percent of females aged 18 to 24 registered to vote, compared with 48 percent of males the same age. That was similar to 45 percent of females who actually voted according the reports, compared with 39 percent of males.

Young Hispanics are the least likely to report registering to vote and actually voting in both presidential and non-presidential election years. In 2004, 44 percent of black youth and 43 of white youth reported voting, comparing 20 percent of Hispanic youth. Of course Hispanics may be of any race.

References:

http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting/cps2004.html

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=296252

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0022-3506.2004.00288.x

[http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do?contentId=853745&contentType=Article]

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Voting in Regina’s Civic Election

June 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Many citizens in Saskatchewan will go to the polls Wed. to elect local govts. Below, the Leader-Post presents answers to typically asked questions about voting in Regina, based primarily on public information available from the town and information supplied by the returning officer, Joni Swidnicki. For more info call Service Regina at 777-7000.

Am I able to vote?

someone is qualified to vote if he or she is a Canadian voter, is at least eighteen years old on election day, has lived in the province for a minimum of 6 sequential months before election day, and either :

has lived in the municipality for at least 3 months before election day ; or,

has owned land in the municipality for no less than 3 months before election day.

Who can I vote for?

Most citizens will be able to vote for mayor and ward councillor and for either public or separate college board trustee ( s ), except where there are going to be acclamations. Someone who owns land in Regina, but does not live in the town, is unsuitable to vote for a college board.

info on all applicants is available online on both the city site ( www.regina.ca ) and on leaderpost.com.

Where am I able to vote?

There are 52 polling locations in Regina, and special polls at hospitals and some special care facilities. To vote, a voters wishes to understand what polling location to attend. Inadvertently, polling place addresses weren’t printed on citizen information cards the town distributed thru the post, but folk can find where to vote these other techniques :

Check this past Saturday’s Leader-Post, or the latest Regina Sun, for an inventory of polling locations. A full map was also revealed in the saturday Leader-Post.

Visit the town of Regina’s website ( www.regina.ca ) for a mapping application. A user can enter their address to get polling location details straight away.

Call Service Regina at 777-7000. The office is open until 8 p.m. Today and staff will help callers find out where to vote.

Non-residents who own land in Regina are to vote at the polling station for the area where the property is located. A non-resident who owns land in more than one ward is able to vote only in one ward – that in which the total assessment of land is highest. Such a citizen is to get a certificate from the borough assessor indicating in which ward she or he is able to vote and is to present that certificate to the assistant returning officer for the polling station.

When can I vote?

All polling stations will be open from nine a.m. To 8 p.m. Wednesday. All polls are accessible for wheelchairs and strollers.

How do I vote?

All a citizen needs to have ahead is awareness of what polling attention he or she is to attend. Once arriving at the polling location, a voter must complete a citizen registration form stating he or she is an eligible citizen. There is no need for citizen identification – the onus is on each individual voter the info provided is valid.

If a citizen is qualified, she or he will be given a single ballot. Each ballot will be placed in a special’secrecy sleeve’ to make sure that all votes are secret.

If the Pope in Rome is known as the leader of a voter’s church, he is regarded as a member of the minority Catholic faith and can make an announcement to be enabled to vote for Roman Catholic separate college board trustees.

people who are thought to be of the minority Catholic religion can vote for public board trustee instead, but those not considered to be of the minority faith cannot vote for the separate board trustees.

When a voter receives the ballot, she or he will mark the oval box beside the candidate of choice . A citizen may only vote for one applicant in each category, unless voting for separate school board trustees, in which case you will vote for up to seven candidates – in the at-large system for the separate board, the top 7 vote getting candidates will win.

Why should I vote?

The town’s web site notes,’Regina citizens will have the chance to shape the way forward for Regina by electing a mayor, councillor ( s ) and college board trustee ( s ) who may be able to respond to the needs of our various communities in a way that benefits all.’ Local regimes has effects on the day to day lives of residents in numerous different methods – so it is worth it to get informed and have a say in the direction for the city for the future.

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