Burde meningsmålinger være ulovlige?

Denne artikel handler om meningsmålinger. Mere specifikt behandler den spørgsmålet om, hvorvidt det bør være ulovligt at offentliggøre resultaterne af meningsmålinger. Spørgsmålet om, hvorvidt offentliggørelse af meningsmålingsresultater bør være ulovligt, er af teoretisk interesse, men det er også af praktisk interesse, fordi et stort antal lande har gennemført love, som gør det ulovligt at offentliggøre meningsmålingsresultater. Denne artikel konkluderer, at der ikke bør være nogen juridiske restriktioner på offentliggørelse af meningsmålingsresultater. Offentliggørelse af sådanne resultater bør være lovligt på et hvilket som helst tidspunkt. I artiklens andet afsnit fremføres et argument for, at udgangspunktet i debatten om, hvorvidt det skal være lovligt at offentliggøre resultaterne af meningsmålinger bør være, at dette skal være lovligt. Der argumenteres for, i) at dette argument er overbevisende. Der kan dog være mindst ét stærkere argument for den opfattelse, at offentliggørelse af meningsmålingsresultater bør være ulovligt. I tredje afsnit argumenteres der for, ii) at der ikke eksisterer et sådant argument. Forudsat at argumenterne for i) og ii) er overbevisende, vil et meget plausibelt argument til fordel for denne artikels konklusion være etableret

Why busing voters to the polling station is paying people to vote

In this paper, we argue that the widespread practice in the United States of busing voters to the polling station on Election Day is an instance of paying people to vote. We defend a definition of what it means to pay people to vote, and on this definition, busing voters to the polling station is an instance of paying people to vote. Paying people to vote is illegal according to United States federal election law. However, the United States courts have historically considered the practice of busing voters to the polling station legally permissible. The United States legal system, therefore, faces a dilemma: either the courts must change their interpretation of current federal election law such that busing voters to the polling station is a violation of federal election law, or federal election law must be changed so that at least some instances of paying people to vote are legally permissible. We argue that choosing either horn of the dilemma has a controversial implication for the United States legal system

Big Data Analytics and How to Buy an Election

In this article, we show how it is possible to lawfully buy an election. The method we describe for buying an election is novel. The key things that make it possible to buy an election are the existence of public voter registration lists where one can see whether a given elector has voted in a particular election, and the existence of Big Data Analytics that with a high degree of accuracy can predict what a given elector will vote in an upcoming election. Someone interested in buying an election can enter an employment contract with all, or some of, the opponent electors where these electors are paid to do a job that prevents them from voting. By purchasing access to the public voter registration lists, it is possible to verify ex-post whether the opponent electors that one has signed a contract with have abstained. In the last two sections of the article, we discuss several barriers that can undermine an attempt to buy an election in the manner we identify

Should opinion polls be illegal?

The question of whether or not publication of opinion poll results should be illegal is of both theoretical and practical interest. A number of countries have laws in place that make the publication of opinion poll results illegal. The article concludes that there should be no legal restrictions on the publication of opinion poll results. The publication of such results should be legally permitted at any time during the electoral cycle. In the second section, a general line of thought centering on the moral nature of state coercion is presented in an attempt to show that the default position in the debate about the legality of the publication of opinion poll results ought be that the publication of such results should be legal. I argue i) that this general line of thought is convincing. There may, however, be at least one stronger argument in favor of the view that the publication of opinion poll results should be illegal. In the third section, I argue ii) that there is in fact no such argument. If i) and ii) are correct, then a very plausible case has been established for the conclusion of this article