Why is Voting Habit-Forming: Evidence from Sweden

For decades, scholars of electoral behavior have noted persistence in individuals' turnout decisions and hypothesized that such persistence is the result of habit. Recent empirical studies provide persuasive evidence supporting the habitual voting hypothesis, but we still do not know why individuals develop habits for voting. One theory is that voting causes individuals' to view themselves as "voters," increasing their future probabilities of voting. Another theory asserts that voting may ease institutional barriers, making future voting less costly and changing conative attitudes towards voting. This study seeks to disentangle these two causal mechanisms by testing the habitual voting hypothesis in Sweden. Since institutional barriers to voting are minimal in Sweden, evidence in favor of the habitual voting hypothesis will lend credence to a psychological mechanism. The opposite result will point to an institutional mechanism. Ultimately, habitual voting is found in Sweden, which suggests the psychological mechanism is valid

Normalized Range Voting Broadly Resists Control

We study the behavior of Range Voting and Normalized Range Voting with respect to electoral control. Electoral control encompasses attempts from an election chair to alter the structure of an election in order to change the outcome. We show that a voting system resists a case of control by proving that performing that case of control is computationally infeasible. Range Voting is a natural extension of approval voting, and Normalized Range Voting is a simple variant which alters each vote to maximize the potential impact of each voter. We show that Normalized Range Voting has among the largest number of control resistances among natural voting systems

Questions and Answers for Foundations on Proxy Voting

Discusses common questions about proxy voting, including legal issues, voting commingled funds, options for voting and for delegating voting authority; trends in foundations' involvement in shareholder advocacy; and examples of active foundations

Distributed Protocols at the Rescue for Trustworthy Online Voting

While online services emerge in all areas of life, the voting procedure in many democracies remains paper-based as the security of current online voting technology is highly disputed. We address the issue of trustworthy online voting protocols and recall therefore their security concepts with its trust assumptions. Inspired by the Bitcoin protocol, the prospects of distributed online voting protocols are analysed. No trusted authority is assumed to ensure ballot secrecy. Further, the integrity of the voting is enforced by all voters themselves and without a weakest link, the protocol becomes more robust. We introduce a taxonomy of notions of distribution in online voting protocols that we apply on selected online voting protocols. Accordingly, blockchain-based protocols seem to be promising for online voting due to their similarity with paper-based protocols

Convenience Voting Legislation

The popularity of "convenience voting" measures -- vote-by-mail (VBM), liberal absentee voting and Early Vote -- has grown in recent years. A majority of states now permit voting by mail upon request, early voting, or both. This trend towards convenience voting has been propelled by its popularity among voters and a perception among policymakers and advocates that such measures decrease costs, increase turnout, and are generally more advantageous than casting a ballot in person on the second Tuesday in November.While legislation introduced in 2008 by state lawmakers indicates that this trends continues, few states saw passage of significant laws that alter the traditional way America votes. Furthermore, research suggests convenience voting may do little to expand the electorate, let alone increase voter turnout. In this memorandum, we provide information on the status of convenience voting legislation in states for 2008, the current parameters of convenience voting laws in the states, and note some of the limitations of convenience voting measures

Classification of voting algorithms for N-version software

A voting algorithm in N-version software is a crucial component that evaluates the execution of each of the N versions and determines the correct result. Obviously, the result of the voting algorithm determines the outcome of the N-version software in general. Thus, the choice of the voting algorithm is a vital issue. A lot of voting algorithms were already developed and they may be selected for implementation based on the specifics of the analysis of input data. However, the voting algorithms applied in N-version software are not classified. This article presents an overview of classic and recent voting algorithms used in N-version software and the authors' classification of the voting algorithms. Moreover, the steps of the voting algorithms are presented and the distinctive features of the voting algorithms in Nversion software are defined. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

Sub-committee Approval Voting and Generalised Justified Representation Axioms

Social choice is replete with various settings including single-winner voting, multi-winner voting, probabilistic voting, multiple referenda, and public decision making. We study a general model of social choice called Sub-Committee Voting (SCV) that simultaneously generalizes these settings. We then focus on sub-committee voting with approvals and propose extensions of the justified representation axioms that have been considered for proportional representation in approval-based committee voting. We study the properties and relations of these axioms. For each of the axioms, we analyse whether a representative committee exists and also examine the complexity of computing and verifying such a committee

E-VOTING IMPLEMENTATION IN NIGERIA: The Success Factors

The proposed adoption of e-Voting in Nigeria by the electoral body. the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), was resisted by the law makers and a sizeable portion of the populace. The reasons may not be unconnected with the previous unsuccessful attempts by government to implement such magnificent projects, particularly, the National ID card scheme; and lack of basic infrastructures to implement the system. This paper reviews thee-Registration exercise by INEC with a view to using it as a springboard fore-Voting implementation in Nigeria; and the experiences of some developed countries to serve as lessons. Similarly, the paper proposes solutions to some of the problems encountered in countries where e-Voting had been adopted. Finally, arising from the perceived apathy between the elect and the electorate, which has resulted to low turnout of voters during elections, an integrated voting system that incorporates an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), Internet Voting (i-Voting) and mobile Voting (m-Voting) is proposed for enhanced participatory democracy