The prospects for the future of voting in the United States include the likelihood of internet voting and its potential to alter voter participation. This thesis provides a critical overview of past experiments, current studies, and the possible consequences of implementing voting over the internet. As internet use increases for education, personal communication, business and commerce, the assumption is that the public and elected officials will view the internet as the practical venue for local, state, and national elections. The potential consequences of utilizing the internet for voters to cast their ballots from personal computers from remote locations, as one future process of voting, are vital to the decisions regarding electronic elections. Challenges inherent to the technology and social consequences concerning internet voting are paramount to the debate. The internet voting process, perceived as convenient with the possible consequence of halting or reversing a declining voter turnout, must be balanced with potential risks to internet voting security and reliability. With emphasis on reports from the California Task Force and the National Science Foundation, as well as current literature regarding electronic voting, research is cited designed to address the issue of internet voting. The history of the United States to enfranchise more of its citizens and eliminate barriers that have kept voters from the polls is discussed in the context that there has been a national objective in extending the right to vote and making the ballot box accessible to all adults. Implementing a voting process that has the potential to give more voters access to elections can be viewed as a natural extension of that American legacy, and is therefore important to research and develop. / Master of Arts

To properly analyze the advantages and disadvantages of voting rules, and how well the outcomes that they yield reflect voters' preferences, one needs very large data sets, since paradoxes that occur very rarely may have large impacts. Since such amounts of election data are currently unavailable, it is important to be able to use random procedures to generate data that have the same statistical characteristics as real election data. It is the purpose of this work to identify a statistical characterization of voting data, to empower researchers to use random procedures to generate data that is statistically indistinguishable from real voting data. / Ph. D. / Democracies use various rules to determine the winners of elections. The plurality rule, under which each voter votes for one candidate and the candidate with the most votes wins, is one example. One can add a specification that when no candidate receives a majority of the votes there will be a run-off, which will sometimes change the outcome. There are many possible voting rules; all have their benefits and limitations. Some rules can yield unsatisfying anomalies, possibly with very small probability. Since such anomalies might occur very rarely, to estimate their frequency one needs data from a substantial number of elections, more elections than are available from historical experience. Thus to undertake research on voting rules, one needs a procedure for generating data that have the same statistical characteristics as real election data. The purpose of this work is to identify enough of the statistical properties of realistic voting data (from surveys) to permit researchers to generate an unlimited amount of simulated election data, so that they can analyze the frequency of various anomalies under different voting rules.

Over the course of the past 30 years, states across the nation have adopted early in-person voting laws. The bulk of academic literature on early in-person voting revolves around the policy’s effect on turnout. This research was conducted over the course of several decades, in different electoral contexts, measuring a diverse array of laws, and remains inconclusive. Meanwhile, the political discussion of voting rights and electoral reform has become increasingly polarized. The divisive views on early voting both in the academic community and in the political realm are indicators of a distinctive evolution of early voting. I argue that early voting reforms were implemented in three unique eras, characterized by different political motivations and an evolving early electorate. I use case studies in Texas, Florida, Missouri, and Massachusetts to explain this theory and provide a framework for more ordered future research.

Currently, there is a lack of usable, remote, and accessible voting technologies that must be addressed. An interactive voice response (IVR) system is one potential solution to this problem, due to its capability of remote use and its audio interface, which is very beneficial for those who are visually impaired. An IVR voting system developed by Holmes and Kortum (2011) was fitted with a synthetic voice and an audio speed adjustment feature for increased accessibility and usability, especially for blind voters (Piner, 2011). This system was tested on the three ISO 9241-11 usability metrics (ISO 9241-11, 1998), efficiency (time to complete a ballot), effectiveness (accuracy), and satisfaction (subjective usability) and compared with the usability of other voting methods in an attempt to determine its viability as a voting method. The usage of the accessibility feature was also examined. Results showed that the IVR voting system is comparable with other voting methods in terms of usability. Results also showed a noticeable portion of non-visually impaired participants utilized the accessibility feature.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 249-265). Also available on the Internet.

This dissertation was inspired by two conflicting patterns: the United States is very proud of its democratic tradition, yet has the second lowest voter turnout rate in the world. In order to better understand America’s electoral hypocrisy and the decline in voter turnout, this dissertation examined how Americans have been encouraged to think about the vote, the voting process and their roles as voters through news media. Specifically, this dissertation asked: (1) How have voters and voting been portrayed in American newspapers from 1948-2004? (2) Have these portrayals changed over time? And (3) what are some potential implications of these patterns for the electorate? To answer these questions, an extensive content analysis and a set of experiments were conducted. In the content analysis, several electoral key terms pertaining to the electoral participation (Vote, Voter, Voting, Election and Electorate--and their derivatives) were located in the Campaign Mapping Project text-base and were subjected to quantitative and qualitative coding techniques. Findings indicate that while (1) voters were increasingly mentioned in print newspapers over time, (2) they were not featured positively, (3) were cast in the shadow of elites, (4) were rarely reminded of democratic responsibilities, and (5) were not connected to the past or each other in election print news coverage. In addition to these dominant patterns, the data also revealed that voters were more likely to be featured as (1) empowered agents in the democratic system between 1948-1968, (2) subsumed under opinion polls and as pawns of elites between 1972-2000, and (3) faced with challenges in the electoral process in 2004. Two on-line experiments (one with the general population and another with college students) were conducted to test the effects of the empowered portrayal of voters found in1948-1968. Results indicated that the empowered portrayal of voters increased citizens’ participatory intentions and trust in news media (college students reported these positive outcomes and more). These findings suggest that the way print news media cover voters and electoral participation may have important socialization effects on citizens’ political attitudes as well as some important practical implications for the press and journalists. / text

Lietuvoje, kaip ir visame pasaulyje šiuo metu, rengiant rinkimus kyla didelė problema, kurios esmė - per mažas rinkėjų aktyvumas dalyvaujant šalyje vykdomuose rinkimuose. Rinkimai vykdomi įprastiniu būdu nepritraukia visų rinkėjų, kadangi piliečiams, turintiems teisę dalyvauti rinkimuose, ne visuomet yra patogu apsilankyti rinkimų apylinkėse dėl laiko stokos ar dėl didelio atstumo iki rinkiminės apylinkės. Vienas iš galimų piliečių dalyvavimo šalies politiniuose procesuose padidinimo metodų gali būti elektroninių balsavimų sistemų kūrimas. Kadangi manoma, kad elektroninės balsavimo sistemos suteiktų papildomų patogumų rinkėjams, dalyvaujantiems balsavimo procesuose, daug pasaulio šalių stengėsi sukurti tokias sistemas ir pradėti naudoti jas šalies rinkiminiuose procesuose. Šiame darbe yra pateikti elektroninių balsavimo sistemų modelius ir kūrimą sąlygojantys aspektai, o taip pat aptariamos pagrindinės grėsmės, kurios gali įtakoti elektroninių balsavimo sistemų sklandų darbą. Darbe pateikiama medžiaga, kurioje analizuojami elektroninių balsavimo sistemų atakų metodai, o taip pat nurodomos priežastis, dėl kurių šios sistemos gali būti atakuojamos. Taip pat darbe yra analizuojama elektroninių rinkimų įgyvendinimo patirtis kai kuriuose pasaulio šalyse, o taip pat atlikta Lietuvoje patvirtintos balsavimo internetu rinkimuose ir referendumuose įgyvendinimo analizę ir aptartas galimas Lietuvos elektroninio balsavimo sistemos modelis. Pagrindinis šio darbo tikslas buvo atlikti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Around all over the world, at this moment, there is one main problem, while government organizations are organizing general elections or referendums. Problem is that citizens are very apathetic and their participation in elections and referendums are very low. Elections and referendums which are based on traditional election system, using paper ballots, are uncomfortable for a lot of citizens, which have election right, because it’s not very comfortable or possible to reach voting poll’s on an election day. In this case the participation of citizens is very low, because it’s not always possible to visit polling stations when the distance to it is quiet big or citizen have no time to vote. This problem is very urgent in Lithuania to. One of the easiest ways to increase participation of citizens in country political processes is creation of electronical voting systems which can be used to cast citizen vote remotely or not. Because of opinion that e-voting systems will be more convenient for the voters and this will increase voters turnout on elections and referendums, governments of some countries are trying to create and begin to use those systems on their countries general elections and referendums. This paper work is representing the standards and main aspects of creation of the e-voting systems and main threats to electronical voting systems. It discusses about system attack methods and people which are interested in e-voting systems compromising. Also it analyzes the... [to full text]

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / Department of Computer Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 249-265).

Voting enables certain formal decisions to be made through the participation of a given population; and it is the vital part of a democratic process. The method of voting used in South Africa (SA) today is derived from the Australian ballot system. This paper-based voting system, however, is slow, convoluted and inaccurate because of human errors; it is costly and largely inefficient. In the early 1900s, election officials overwhelmingly decided to use electronic voting (E-voting) systems to solve some of the problematic issues of paper-based voting systems. Mobile voting (M-voting) is a subset of E-voting; and it allows citizens to use their mobile phones to cast their votes. Very few countries have endeavoured to implement M-voting, in order to improve mobility and simplify the election procedures. Despite several M-voting initiatives reported worldwide; insufficient attention has been devoted to understanding the factors that influence the success or failure of M-voting implementation. It is also important to note that the implementation of M-voting may be very difficult; if the different modalities that aid successful M-voting implementation are not in place. This study seeks to develop a framework that has the potential to enable the successful implementation of M-voting in SA. The proposed framework is an IT artefact that endeavors to improve human experiences for voting. This study followed a Design-Science approach; and it made use of a case study to collect the data via a literature review, observations, questionnaires, focus groups and expert reviews. The study revealed that there is no institutional, legal and regulatory framework for the proliferation of M-voting in SA. Successful M-voting implementation depends on a compendium of factors, which may be unique in the local context where it is implemented. The framework that resulted from the above was assessed for validity and applicability; after which a modified framework was presented. The research concludes with specific implementation guidelines, as well as areas for future research.