This thesis attempted to determine the validity of the hypothesis that the Jewish vote, as measured by the 1972 election results, was a reflection of the developing importance of economic and social status to the American Jew. By examining the political group behavior that Jews have exhibited in the past and during the 1972 election, the contention of this thesis was to depict a particular, it examined the relationship between the economic level of the Jewish voter, and a switch to the Republican Party in the 1972 election.Steadily Democratic since the 1930's, this "ethnic Jewish vote" had been unaffected by the social and economic advances made by the Jewish people. However, the 1972 election proved that this vote was not immovable. The factors that entered into this relatively large exodus from the Democratic Party were also examined, as were its implications to the present, and predictions for the future of the Jewish vote.

This thesis seeks to explore the idea of Indigenous participation in Canada’s federal electoral system and whether such involvement can wield positive change to the Canadian/Indigenous relationship. The analysis presented throughout this thesis highlights the development of a tarnished Canadian/Indigenous relationship as well as the debate surrounding the belonging of Indigenous peoples in relation to the Canadian state and their own Indigenous nations. Additionally, this thesis demonstrates that Indigenous peoples voting in Canada’s electoral system do not hinder Indigenous sovereignty, but may heighten its recognition instead, as well as how participation in Canada’s political system may wield influence by Indigenous peoples over Canada’s elected officials. Although potential for Indigenous influence within Canada’s electoral process exists, further research is needed to delve into the subject matter at a deeper level.

In this dissertation we study the problem of making electronic voting trustworthy through the use of cryptographic end-to-end (E2E) audits. In particular, we present a series of novel proposals for cryptographic election verification with a focus on real-world practicality. We begin by outlining fundamental requirements of E2E election verification, important properties for a real-world settings, and provide a review of previous and concurrent related work. Our research results are then presented across three parts. In the first part we examine how E2E election verification can be made more procedurally familiar to real-world voters and election administrators. We propose and implement an E2E add-on for conventional optical-scan based voting systems, and highlight our experiences running an election using this system in a United States municipality. In the second part we examine how E2E election verification can be made more conceptually and procedurally simple for election verifiers/auditors. We present a non-cryptographic E2E system based on physical document security assumptions as an educational tool. We extend this system to a cryptographic setting to show how the procedures of cryptographic election verification can be completed with relatively tiny software code bases, or by using common-place programs such as a desktop spreadsheet. We then present an approach that allows verifiers to conduct cryptographic audits without having to plan for it prior to an election. In the third part we examine how the methods in the first part can be extended to provide a level of privacy/distribution of trust similar to that of classical cryptographic voting protocols, while maintaining the (comparatively) intuitive optical-scan interface. To that end, we propose a novel paradigm for secure distributed document printing that allows optical-scan ballots to be printed in a way that still lets voters check their ballots have been counted, while keeping their voting preferences secret from election officials and everyone else. Finally we outline how the results obtained in each of the three parts can be combined to create a cryptographically end-to-end verifiable voting system that simultaneously offers a conventional optical-scan ballot, ballot secrecy assured by a distribution of trust, and a simple, cryptographically austere set of audit procedures.

<p>This paper gave an insight into the novelties as well as the deficiencies of the provisions related to democratic elections and their implementation framework. It examined the potential effectiveness or otherwise of a binding treaty which is not yet enforced on the basis of past experience. In effect, it shed light on the possible measures that could be taken to guarantee its realisation and to circumvent the shortcomings in ensuring its effective implementation.</p>

Includes bibliographical references. / vi, 291 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Economics, 1994

Young people in the Western world demonstrate that they have little connection to democratic processes through their increasing absence from the polls at election time. This trend is evidenced in New Zealand where the secondary school curriculum has little content concerning electoral and political processes. Low voter turn-out is particularly prevalent in the triennial local body elections where only a small proportion of all eligible voters participate.This research is based within two North Shore City secondary schools and has two objectives. The first to establish the current understanding of Year 13 students of the local authority, its activities, governance and decision-making processes and the second to assess the effect of this information on the election activity of the participants. Following the provision of this information to the selected classes and after 2004 local authority elections, the same classes completed questionnaires to ascertain whether their participation (voting and non-voting) in the elections was affected by this intervention. A post-election focus group of non-school-based newly eligible voters enabled some qualitative inquiry into rationale and attitudes.The findings indicate a wide degree of ignorance and reinforce the current political situation where young people see no relevance to them of local authority politics. The research highlights the need to engage young people in civic matters and increase their ownership of and involvement in the democratic process.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 285-297). Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, 1973.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Duke University, 2008.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Political Science, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.