MetaFilter posts tagged with elections

Japan's New Day

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:03:41 -0800

Japan's opposition party, The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), is projected to win a landslide victory tomorrow, ending the 52-year reign of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Furthermore, according to a survey conducted by the popular Asahi Shimbun newspaper, the DPJ could win a two-thirds majority, enabling them to roll legislation through the Diet unabated. Despite the projections, the two parties are still battling hard. Washington is following these elections very closely, because of the man who could be the next prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama. In an op-ed piece for the New York Times, Hatoyama criticizes US economic and foreign policy, and says that while "the Japan-U.S. security pact will continue to be the cornerstone of Japanese diplomatic policy", that "we must continue to build frameworks for stable economic cooperation and security across the [East Asian] region", including the development of a single pan-Asian currency. In addition, Hatoyama has been vocal about his opposition to public officials visiting Yasukuni Jinja, a Shinto shrine honoring fallen Japanese soldiers, including numerous war criminals - a move that could smooth relations with China and Korea. Gerald Curtis, a Japanese politics expert who teaches at Columbia University, sums up the sea change within the Japanese electorate thusly: "The DPJ will almost certainly win the majority — without a coalition partner. This is a huge, huge change. ... The public was waiting for a chance to show their dissatisfaction, which is why they had no election, because [Shinzo] Abe, [Yasuo] Fukuda and Aso knew that they would lose. So, they put it off until the very last moment. And lo and behold, they're going to lose."

Nokia Siemens and the Iranian Government

HylandErickson — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:46:36 -0800

In 2008, Nokia Siemens’ Networks sold Iran a program called Monitoring Centre, which allows the government not only to monitor all mobile communications, but also to alter their contents, possibly for disinformation purposes. Implementation of the deep-packet inspection technology that the program uses may be to blame for the halt in mobile service that occurred after the June 12th election. According the BBC, Nokia Siemens markets the Monitoring Center product to 150 countries around the world.

27 countries, 375 estimated voters, one European election

ruelle — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 08:52:16 -0800

The European elections results 2009 website will open on June 7 at 18.00 CET. While waiting for the results, check out the issues, the EU 30 years ago and now and the EU Parliament twitter feed.

The NRW timeline

tellurian — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:08:06 -0800

NRW 1946—2006. Short articles chronicling North Rhine-Westphalia. The site has one rather large shortcoming though, the video clips cannot be accessed (only available on VHS within the State!).

X marks the spot; 700 million might

adamvasco — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:39:31 -0800

Between 16 April - 13 May the worlds largest democracy will go into action. Being India the logistics are mind boggling. Over 700 million eligible voters who will vote in over 700,000 polling stations for 1,055 political parties. The BBC goes on to explain what makes Indian elections special. University of Maryland has Forecasts and Analysis and Trends in Indian Election Politics has both insight and an interesting blog roll. As Indian Politics are more than usually corrupt and thuggish there is website dedicated to information about candidates with a criminal history. Sadly in spite of this great democratic exercise, repression of speech and miscarriage of justice will probably still be around for a while.

EU Profiler

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 12:37:40 -0800

EU Profiler: the authors of Kieskompas, a "Vote-O-Mat"-style tool for the undecided Dutch voter, following up on their adaptation for the US Presidential election (previously on MeFi), will launch an EU-wide version for the European Parliament elections upcoming in June. So Europeans, urge your political parties to register! The tool itself will launch in May.

GOP 2.0--Republicans Go Internet

Ironmouth — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:23:06 -0800

GOP 2.0 There's no doubt that the internet operation of President-Elect Obama was a key part of his success. While it appears that he is attempting to turn that success into an engine for keeping citizens and supporters engaged with the revolutionary Change.gov,(Previously), the other side also is looking to harness the wave of internet electioneering. The Republicans are not only looking to copy Obama's technology operation, but to field candidates in all 435 congressional districts, much like Obama's vaunted 50-state strategy. Sponsors of this initiative include Mike Krempasky and Ben Domenech, founders of RedState, and Patrick Ruffini, a leader in GOP internet messaging.

Voting day today

twoleftfeet — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:06:46 -0800

There hasn't been much coverage about this in the major media, so you probably aren't aware that there is a presidential election today. After two terms, the current president cannot seek reelection. The next president could be a military man or an attorney. There could also be changes in the Senate. All of this means a lot for the country's relations with other countries, its independence from foreign energy sources, and for the future, in general, of this great country.

We can now declare the next president!

twoleftfeet — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:05:09 -0800

There is a litmus test that has predicted the winner and loser of every presidential election over the past 100 years. If the Dow has risen 3.3 percent or more in October, the incumbent party has never lost. If the Dow has dropped 0.5 percent or more, the incumbent party has never won. That is, until 2004. Perhaps a more reliable test is the relative popularity of halloween masks; track your favorite candidate at Amazon or BuyCostumes.

Taking Down Harper (part deux)

gman — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:53:28 -0800

Anti-Conservative site Vote For Environment, has had over a million hits in just 12 days. Previously.

Neighborhood Watch

jayCampbell — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:31:01 -0800

Project Vote 2008 aims to repair "vote caging" [discussed previously] by compiling Google spreadsheets of affected households. Check your own status, and alert friends or neighbors you find there that their voter registration status is at risk for "alleged or actual deficiencies." (Our own asavage calls it "cool and important")

Vote in my space.

gman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:40:36 -0800

Newfoundland's Progressive Conservative Premier registered his Anything But Conservative campaign today with Elections Canada. The same agency also deemed that the online vote swap on Facebook is in fact legal. They're hiring.

Wisconsin Attorney General sues Elections Agency

echo target — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:49:10 -0800

The Attorney General of Wisconsin, JB Van Hollen, is suing the state Elections Board to remove from voting rolls all voters whose registered names & addresses don't match the records at the Department of Transportation. The Elections Board is required by law to check the information filed by new registrants against the information in the DOT database. The law does not specify what should be done when a mismatch is found. Van Hollen wants the Board to require all voters, both new and previously registered to cast a provisional ballot if there is a mismatch. Read the Elections Board's reponse (PDF). The Elections Board had decided not to force existing voters to cast provisional ballots after finding that 20% of voter registrations had mismatching information, mostly due to typographical errors and variations in spelling. Some are saying this suit could turn Wisconsin into "the new Florida" in the upcoming election. Other Wisconsin folks may remember Van Hollen from his instance during his campaign that there are active terrorist training camps in Wisconsin.

An outlaw view of the underbelly of the beast during the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:16:02 -0800

Fear and Loathing in Denver, Colorado - August 24-28, 2008.

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Bromius — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:55:33 -0800

Many people are up in arms (heh) over the Supreme Court's decision regarding gun control, but rather less press is being given to another opinion handed down today: Davis v. FEC. The issue was the constitutionality of the "Millionaire's Amendment", which allowed for political candidates facing self-funding challengers who intended to spend more than $350,000 to raise more money from individual donors than they would otherwise be allowed to do. In a 5-4 decision, the court found the law unconstitutional. Justice Alito writing for the majority, argues that the Amendment forces wealthy candidates to "choose between the First Amendment right to engage in unfettered political speech and subjection to discriminatory fundraising limitations.” Justice Stevens, dissenting, writes: “The millionaire’s amendment quiets no speech at all. On the contrary, it does no more than assist the opponent of a self-funding candidate in his attempts to make his voice heard; this amplification in no way mutes the voice of the millionaire, who remains able to speak as loud and as long as he likes in support of his campaign.” The decision will have a marked effect on the 2008 elections, if only because parties like to recruit wealthy challengers. Check out the .rtf at the end of that last link. Incidentally, John McCain's reaction to the striking down of a section of one of his own bills is subdued. Oh, and the law really helped out a certain politician back in 2004. You may have heard of him.

Get out of the vehicle, or we'll burn it

Artw — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:52:36 -0800

Zimbabwe: Holds diplomats (after threatening to burn them), suspends aid, bans opposition rallies.

Gasoline for that fire?

allkindsoftime — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:23:48 -0800

April 18, 1980: Rhodesia is renamed Zimbabwe after it is granted black majority rule. In 1980 the Rhodesian government accepted British and American mediation and signed the Lancaster House agreement for majority rule. In elections held that year, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), as ZANU became known, decisively defeated ZAPU. Robert Mugabe was installed as prime minister, and the nation was renamed Zimbabwe. (via) Nearly 3 wees ago, Zimbabwe voted to, by most accounts, finally oust Mugabe. But he's still there, election results are still withheld, and his militia will shortly be getting their hands on 70 tonnes weaponry coming (via a complacent South Africa) from that one country in Asia hosting the Olympics this year. Lots more at ZimbabweSituation. Prev.

And the wheels start coming off again.

allkindsoftime — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:30:16 -0800

"It's ethnic cleansing happening." Fully ten days after elections that most are speculating were indeed won by the opposition party (Movement for Democratic Change), Robert Mugabe still clings to power in Zimbabwe. The voting results have still not been released, and 5 election officials have been arrested, "accused of tampering with the vote to the detriment of Mugabe's tally." Its been a tense time for Zim, and now the violence and land seizures have started again. This morning it was reported that 60 white farmers have now been driven from their lands by "groups of as many as 200 young men, organized and paid by ZANU-PF and chanting party slogans and shouting anti-white epithets." That's over 10% of the remaining white farmers left in Zimbabwe, after the thousands in the last few years that had their lands seized at Mugabe's behest: "Land must remain in our hands - the land is ours, it must not be allowed to slip back into the hands of whites." South Africa's Thabo Mbeki is expected to meet with the opposition leader. Tutu remains hopeful that Mugabe will step down, but gangs are going after opposition voters.

The Misery Circle

idiomatika — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:26:26 -0800

The Misery Circle An article about the remaining 13 also-rans in past US presidential elections.

Mapping the election conditions in Zimbabwe

PenDevil — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:02:50 -0800

Mapping the election conditions in Zimbabwe - A project of Sokwanele , the Zimbabwe Civic Action Support Group. Zimbabweans vote in presidential and parliamentary elections on March 29th.

Bloggers in Parliament

divabat — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:50:49 -0800

This year's elections in Malaysia are historic due to the major wins by the Opposition/People's Front and the National Front's loss of 5 states and the 2/3 majority in parliament (one they've held since 1969) (comparisons). Two of the newly elected Members of Parliament are bloggers Tony Pua and Jeff Ooi; another blogger, Elizabeth Wong, has won a seat in the state assembly of the now-Opposition-run Selangor. This is significant, as Malaysian bloggers had been under attack by the government. (last link YouTube video in Malay with subtitles).

Electoral Geography

Rykey — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 12:09:19 -0800

Had enough election coverage this year? If not-- or if you forgot that countries besides the USA have elections too-- you can see details of elections the world over via Electoral Geography 2.0. Browse elections in chronological order or by country, or read scholarly articles on various elections. Not comprehensive (yet!); in general, the more recent, the more coverage.

Meghan McCain on the trail.

OmieWise — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 10:31:41 -0800

Meghan McCain's blog. Just another political blog, by another candidate's daughter. O! what the internet has wrought. WTF, silhouette?

Who should I vote for?

nickyskye — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:38:06 -0800

A little lost coming up to the Presidential Primary? The Electoral Compass is a brief set of questions that matches your choices with the candidate whose positions are the closest to yours. Discover your position in the political landscape for the US presidential election 2008. Also: Political Compass

Who would the World Elect?

augustweed — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:29:28 -0800

Who would the world elect for President of the United States?