This study explores changes in British Columbia electoral patterns during the twentieth century, and relates these changes to dimensions of societal and political modernization. It focuses on swing, the percentage point shift in a party's support between two successive elections, and examines constituency- arid sub constituency-level results in provincial elections between 1903 and 1975. The thesis tested is that development of the province's communications infrastructure was a central cause of the electoral developments which took place. The first part of the study clarifies the electoral developments by tracing changes in the level of swing uniformity and the degree of swing patterning. It begins with evidence that swings became much more uniform as the century progressed. Analyses of electoral shifts in constituencies and nonmetropolitan communities both show that swings of parallel direction and magnitude were much more likely in elections after 1952. This trend to swing uniformity is taken to indicate a decline in the importance of local electoral forces. It is hypothesized that the twentieth century communications revolution contributed to this decrease in electoral localism by facilitating the establishment of locality-arching patterns of political influence. After demonstrating the increase in swing uniformity, we examine three developments which could explain the trend. The premise underlying this part of the study is that increased patterning of swing by the characteristics of constituencies or communities may account for increased uniformity. Tests for cross-election changes in the explanatory power of three variables—electoral competitiveness, socio-economic composition, and region—show that the overall decline in swing variance was not accounted for by increased patterning. The trend to uniformity was unpatterned; voter aggregates with different characteristics and locations were simply more likely to produce parallel swings in later elections. The second part of the study explores the reasons for these developments. The communications development interpretation is tested and alternative interpretations are considered. The communications interpretation argues that improvements in communications infrastructure contributed to an increase in the uniformity of electoral forces operating on dispersed constituencies and communities, and thus helped to bring about increased swing uniformity. Chapters 7 and 8 test four propositions which are derived from this interpretation. These state: (a) that there should be a detailed correspondence between the pace of communications development and the trend to swing uniformity; (b) that the appearance of intense regional communications patterns should predict the regional swing patterns which marked the 1969, 1972 and 1975 elections; (c) that regional differences in the timing of the trend to uniformity should be explained by differences in the pace of communications development; and (d) that communications isolation should explain the tendency of some contemporary communities to swing in ways which indicate that they are insulated from prevailing electoral forces. The results of these tests enhance the credibility of the communications interpretation. In speculating about alternative interpretations we acknowledge that a complete causal map would have to grant other factors an important place. But the evidence supporting the test propositions, and the fact that the most plausible alternative interpretations complement the communications interpretation, argue that communications change was a principal cause of the provincialization of British Columbia electoral politics. Communications modernization altered the relationship between geography and the spatial distribution of electoral results. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

"Election management bodies (EMBs) have thus been established throughout the world with the responsibility of administering elctions. However, merely creating a body to administer elections does not create public conficence and integrity in the electoral process. The establishment and operation of such a body must meet the key requirements of credible election administration. One such requirement is the need for the EMB to be independent of any party. The independence of the EMB is said, by and large, to attract the confidence of all the stakeholders in the electoral process and create integrity in the process. ... However, as one scholar has observed, the lack of autonomy of EMBs from the government in some African countries is one of the major challenges to the credibility of the electoral process on the continent. It is important to note at this point that the independence of EMBs, though not in itself a guarantee of free and fair elections, determines to a large extent the overall legitimacy and acceptability of an elected government by the electorate. Flowing from this discourse is the need for the independence of EMBs in Africa, both in theory and practice, in order to enhance democracy on the continent. ... Kenya and South Africa have established EMBs to manage elections in accordance with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Organisation for African Unity/African Union (OAU/AU) Declaration of 2002. The Kenyan EMB has been in existence since 1991. Recently, the issue of its indpendence has become a central focus in a raging national debate on minimum constitutional reforms in Kenya. Similarly, the independence of the South African EMB, though believed to be sufficiently safeguarded, has also come to be questioned. These institutions play a crucial role in the democratisation processes in both countries, and one of the ways of achieving this goal, is by ensuring their independence from the political process. This study proposes to examine the independenct of the two EMBs and proposes ways of strengthening them with a view to enhancing the work of democracy in both countries. ... Chapter one introduces the study and the problem statement that has prompted the study. Chapter two analyses the concept of independence of EMBs. It also discusses the justification for their independence. A comparative analysis of the independence of EMBs of Kenya and South Africa is the subject of chapter three. Chapter four proposes to discuss the ways of further strengthening the indpendence of EMBs of Kenya and South Africa. The fifth and final chapter proffers conclusions and recommendations." -- Introduction. / Prepared under the supervision of Mr. Kingsley Kofi Kuntunkrunku Ampofo at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2006. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

The purpose of this paper is to document and quantify the primary reasons for the gradual erosion of southern Democratic hegemony in presidential elections during the last twenty-four years. The results confirm and reinforce the findings of the historical study, which indicates the primary reason for changing southern allegiance has been the changing philosophy of the Democratic Party in the civil rights field.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / I address state voter identification laws and test to see if they cause lower voter turnout. My hypothesis states a significance that voter ID laws have in determining voter turnout in each state’s election. The focus is on each of the fifty states elections and examines them from 2000 through 2016. With voter ID laws being the independent variable and turnout a control variable, the study was able to determine a statistical significance between the two. There is no readily available data table for voter ID laws, the table created will advance any further research done within voter ID laws.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Bibliography: leaves 152-153. / by William Theodore Dickens. / Ph.D.

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Journalism and Media Studies A816954 muriungianne@yahoo.com / Everywhere in countries around the world, there is an urgent call for governments in Nations to enforcement democracy for its citizens. One of the measures of democracy is in an election where citizens are able to freely elect the leaders who govern them. In such times, the media in general play a vital role in among other things, informing the voters, providing a forum for debate and acting as a watchdog to ensure that election malpractices are not carried out. Further, as purveyors of truth, the media is expected to give balanced accounts of the political parties contending as well as debate the promises of the candidates and parties in question. In Kenya’s 2002 elections, the voters depended on the media to effectively play out its role as a purveyor of information, and also set the agenda for what was deemed important. This research report is an examination, an analysis, which looks into what Kenya’s leading newspapers reported about the elections in 2002. In this report, I will not only be looking at the overall picture the newspapers painted but further, I will examine the themes that played themselves out in the newspapers over the election period. The theories of news production as well as the role of media in democracy and subsequently in election coverage will aid the arguments in this paper. Further, I will also debate the notion of objectivity in media coverage in order to ascertain whether private media can be the standards set for the industry. In doing this, the research will be examining the role of media in democracy and subsequently in an election coverage.

Past studies concerning the effects of economic conditions on voter perceptions have tended to generalize their findings to the entire national electorate. Such generalizations fail to account for the different ideologies, lifestyles, and economic conditions that exist from state to state. In the current study, I compare the effects of subjective financial evaluations with the effects of objective economic indicators on voter perceptions and turnout in the state of Mississippi. The purpose is to determine the extent to which past findings on the national level hold up on the state level, with Mississippi as the subject of analysis. Using data from the Mississippi Poll and employing a logistic regression method, the findings show that Mississippian‟s perceptions of political figures are more strongly influenced by subjective financial evaluations. Voter turnout, on the other hand, was more strongly influenced by objective economic indicators than personal financial satisfaction.

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