MetaFilter posts tagged with voting

Justin M. Nickels, Mayor-Elect

hermitosis — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:35:16 -0800

Meet Justin Nickels , the 22-year-old grocery store cashier and college student who was just elected Mayor of Manitowoc, WI by a margin of 15 votes.

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.

Election Fraud in Kentucky

chunking express — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:20:10 -0800

Election Fraud in Kentucky. "I think this is the first documented case of election fraud in the U.S. using electronic voting machines (there have been lots of documented cases of errors and voting problems, but this one involves actual maliciousness)."

The House will now consider the Flags for Orphans bill

TheDonF — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:22:30 -0800

UK MPs trying to block publishing their expenses - they're voting on Thursday to overturn last year's High Court ruling. TheyWorkForYou is emailing members to let them know that the UK government buried the news of this vote amongst last week's Heathrow runway anouncement. They are trying to reverse the 16 May 2008 High Court decision that MPs' expenses must, under the Freedom Of Information Act, be made public. What can you do about this mixture of Jo Moore and Krusty? TheyWorkForYou is encouraging people to write to their local MP to ask them to vote against the bill, join the obligatory Facebook group or use their MySociety site to contact local media outlets.

Free stuff for voting!

backseatpilot — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:13:30 -0800

Today, we Americans exercise one of our most sacred rights - the right to free stuff. Other free stuff you can pick up for voting: Free sex toy (probably not SFW) Free piercings Free Chik-Fil-A Free flu shot Lots more region-specific free stuff.

What to do if your vote is suppressed

mecran01 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:02:59 -0800

Do you know what to do if your vote is suppressed?
GOODVOTE.ORG is a group of volunteers from the technology community and blogosphere who simply want the will of the voters to be reflected in the result of the 2008 election. Our only purpose is to make sure that when legitimate voters are challenged they know who to turn to for help.

You Can't Do This To Me/Us, You Bastards

Xurando — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:15:13 -0800

The New York Times reports that tens of thousands of voters from swing states have been illegally purged from voter registration lists using social security numbers. Unsure whether your vote will count? Check here.

What attire can I wear to the polls on election day?

cashman — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:26:46 -0800

A dress code at the polls? Many states have 'electioneering' laws in place that can be broadly interpreted to mean that clothing with political messages is not allowed. Snopes put a page up advising voters to check with their board of elections. Some election officials have released statements attempting to clarify [pdf] the enforcement of their state's electioneering laws, though those statements aren't legally binding. Other election officials are suing to keep the broad definition of electioneering in place. If rules are interpreted to include campaign shirts and buttons, you will likely need to cover the item up, remove it, or otherwise conceal it. With so many new voters, folks who have relocated, differences between the primaries and the general election and rules in flux in many states, I removed the state-by-state listing I originally began constructing in favor of having this post be a place where people can add the most recent state-specific updates as they become available. Reference - 2006 document [pdf] linked from Snopes page with state-by-state information.

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")

I'm writing in Stephen Colbert

misha — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:41:31 -0800

Bother Voting doesn't care who you are going to support this election, as long as you get out and vote. Now all you have to do is use their creative e-cards and banners to convince your friends to hit the polls.

What makes people vote Republican?

bjork24 — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:57:57 -0800

What makes people vote Republican? Why in particular do working class and rural Americans usually vote for pro-business Republicans when their economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies? We psychologists have been examining the origins of ideology ever since Hitler sent us Germany's best psychologists, and we long ago reported that strict parenting and a variety of personal insecurities work together to turn people against liberalism, diversity, and progress.

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.

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who don't vote

never used baby shoes — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:11:08 -0800

Alberta voted on March 3, 2008. Or did it? The record low turnout of 41.3% is causing questions to be asked. Declining voter turnout is not new in Canada. Elections Canada has studied the reasons behind it (full study indexed here), showing that many factors play a role in the decision not to vote. Is it time to explore the Australian solution?(pdf) In the meantime, American primaries are breaking records for voter turnout, showing that the trend can be overcome.

Stop me if you've heard this joke: DIEBOLD VOTING MACHINES

spock — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:40:46 -0800

Once again, The Onion comes a little too close to the truth for comfort. Or in reality, are things working just fine? Security at Diebold is as tight as ever. Concerns (again) in Ohio. Also: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." (Bill Shakespeare)

Also, make sure to bring a number two pencil

Rhaomi — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 04:26:22 -0800

Something is rotten in the state of ~~Denmark~~ California. The California-based Courage Campaign is making noises about voter disenfranchisement in the Los Angeles area. For the 776,774 ~~independent~~ "Decline To State" voters in the primary there, casting a ballot for a Democratic nominee is a bit more difficult than you'd think would be necessary (the Republican primary is (un?)fortunately closed to independents). These "DTS" voters must request a Democratic Party ballot (as opposed to a generic nonpartisan one without a section for the Presidency), and then (somewhat redundantly) fill a bubble at the top of that ballot reiterating their intent to participate in the Democratic primary. Sounds simple enough. But the average voter has been confounded by less than simple procedures before. In spite of the potential for confusion, the local board of registrars has made the brilliant decision to have the scanning machines invalidate all ballots that do not have that extra bubble filled in -- without informing the voter of the mistake. Furthermore, poll workers will not be required to inform DTS voters of their right to a Democratic ticket unless asked, a policy which State Senator Dean Florez said "violates the spirit of the law" in a stern letter (scroll down to read) to California Secretary of State Debra Bowen. While the issue at first glance seems purely local, the effects of any disenfranchisement will have great influence on Tuesday's results. It is common knowledge that independents are drawn to Barack Obama's campaign, and with them locked out of supporting John McCain in the state's closed GOP primary, he was counting on their turnout to help top Hillary Clinton's erstwhile formidable lead. With the ballot issue threatening that support, the campaign was quick to explain the problem. And for good reason -- the three quarters of a million DTS voters in Los Angeles amount to three-fourths of the votes cast in the all the Democratic primaries to date. Their influence can easily sway California, which itself will sway the media narrative coming out of Super Tuesday. For its part, the aforementioned Courage Campaign is hard at work spreading awareness with websites, (minor) celebrity radio ads, and cheesy YouTube skits. Here's hoping their efforts pay off, and that we can finally get through an election -- even one as crucial as SupercalifragalisticexpialaTuesday -- without an intractable struggle for recounts and justice.

"Something — something — happens every election.”

Miko — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 06:51:55 -0800

“I’m an old computer nerd,” Diener said. “I can do anything with computers. Nothing’s wrong with computers. But this is the worst way to run an election.” NYTMag piece on electronic voting, voter confidence, and the impact of old-fashioned problems like printer jams, befuddled voters and volunteers, and interface design flaws. By Clive Thompson.

Best-Designed Sites on the Web by Popular Vote

MattS — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:14:25 -0800

CommandShift3 is like Hot or Not. Except, instead of clicking on hot babes, you click on hot websites. It's actually a pretty nice way to check out good design on the web. It's also the key combo to do a screenshot on a mac.

Beats flipping a coin.

allkindsoftime — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:35:29 -0800

Glassbooth connects you to the presidential candidate that represents your beliefs the best. Too busy/lazy/etc. to research the candidates on your own? Let web 2.0 tell you who to vote for.

Voters get Santorumed

duende — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:30:53 -0800

Pennsylvania polling places regarding September 08 elections to have everything but voters.

Death Grip

homunculus — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:45:30 -0800

Death Grip: How Political Psychology Explains Bush's Ghastly Success. Interesting article on the work of psychologists Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, and Tom Pyszczynski. [Via Disinformation.]

Nomic is a game where modifying the game is the game.

cortex — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:57:43 -0800

Nomic, as introduced by inventor Peter Suber (homepage): a game of self-modification—every move is an attempt to alter the rules governing how the game is played. Further from wikipedia. [A great deal more within.]

Mathematics vs. Democracy: A Clear Winner or a Tie Game?

jonp72 — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:11:39 -0800

The Marquis de Condorcet and Admiral Jean-Charles de Borda were two men of the French Enlightenment who struggled with how to design voting systems that accurately reflected voters' preferences. Condorcet favored a method that required the winner in a multiparty election to win a series of head-to-head contests, but he also discovered that his method easily led to a paradoxes that produced no clear winners. The Borda method avoids the Condorcet paradox by requiring voters to rank choices numerically in order of preference, but this method is flawed because the withdrawal of a last-place candidate can reverse the election results. Mathematicians in the 19th century attempted to design better voting systems, including Lewis Carroll, who favored an early form of proportional representation. Economist Kenneth Arrow argued that designing a perfect voting system was futile, because his "impossibility theorem" proved that it's impossible to design a non-dictatorial voting system that fulfills five basic criteria of fairness. (more inside)

Another Great Compromise may be in order.

Avenger — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 20:45:54 -0800

Today the DNC voted "to strip Florida of all its presidential convention delegates, threatening to leave the state without a vote for the party's 2008 nominee unless it delays the date of its presidential primary election." [More Inside]

Diebold is dead. Sorta.

mathowie — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:57:04 -0800

Diebold Election Systems is no more (at least in name). Taking a page from the cigarette companies, Diebold is changing their name and hoping to reverse the downward spiral after their recent news.

Mo' money, mo' legislation

djgh — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:19:20 -0800

Is there a link between donations given and bills passed? MAPLight.org aims to help you find out, giving you the ability to compare contributions with how legislators voted. [Via]