On January 13, 2010 I blogged about Jonas’ essay (Part I). He has posted Part II, and there is much of relevance for election administrators and scholars of election administration and voting technology.
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Election Updates
New research, analysis and commentary on election reform, voting technology, and election administration.
CSED study of online pollworker training programs
A study by Stephen T. Mockabee, J. Quin Monson, and Kelly D. Patterson (of BYU’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy), was issued that examines online pollworker programs. Here’s the report, “Evaluating On-line Training: A Study of Poll Worker Training in Butler and Delaware Counties, Ohio for the March 4, 2008 presidential primary Election and in Bexar and Travis, Counties, Texas for the November 4, 2008 General Election.”
Special issue of Political Analysis on natural experiments
A special issue of Political Analysis has just been published, on natural experiments. This issue might be of interest to readers, as research on election administration and elections technology sometimes takes advantage of natural experiments. Here is the link to the special issue.
Paperback of Electronic Elections soon available
The paperback edition of our book, Electronic Elections, will shortly be available. I received copies myself from the publisher late last week.
Here’s a link to the book’s page on amazon.com.
And here is the link to the book’s page at Princeton University Press.
Paper calls … upcoming conferences
Paper calls have been issued for a couple of upcoming conferences.
First, EVOTE2010.
Second, EVT/WOTE 2010.
Undervotes in Oregon: Caused by Two Sided Ballots?
A fascinating conversation is going on here on undervotes in the recent Oregon referendum. The undervote rate on Measure 67 exceeded the undervote rate on Measure 66 by as much as 1% in one county, and more than .75% in three counties.
A spreadsheet displaying the numbers can be found here.
The consensus is slowly emerging that the higher undervotes were directly correlated to the use of a two sided ballots in some, but not all, Oregon counties, which leads one to ask, why would an identical set of ballot measures with no local races appear one-sided in some counties and two sided in others?
Modern Democracy Magazine
Our colleague Robert Krimmer — who runs e-voting.cc in Austria has published a new edition of Modern Democracy Magazine, a free online publication. It has several articles about e-voting, internet voting, and election observation in the electronic voting environment. You can download the publication for free, here.
Final updates on early turnout for tax measures in Oregon
I have been reporting on the turnout figures for two controversial tax measures in Oregon here, and I thought electionupdate readers may want to see the charts.
There does seem to be a trend in Oregon toward voters holding their ballots later and later, but as I’ve shown in a paper published in the William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, there are also campaign effects. In the January 2003 election plotted below, for instance, we found that Republican identifiers cast ballots earlier than Democrats.
More on voter turnout in Oregon
I have updated my posting on Blue Oregon about voter turnout in the current special tax election.
It’s a nice example of very high quality, daily turnout data. There will be one more update before next Tuesday’s election. Obviously, the contest in Oregon is not as nationally consequential as the Massachusetts results, but for this state–and perhaps our neighbor to the south–voter endorsement of tax increases would be quite significant. Voter rejection of these legislative changes would create a fiscal crisis.
We’ll see one another Western state does. Perhaps California will look north for once?
Post Doctoral Fellowship in Elections
This came across my desk today:
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP
MAKING ELECTORAL DEMOCRACY WORK
Applications are invited for a post-doctoral fellowship supported by the “Making Electoral Democracy Work” project. The study examines how the rules of the game influence voters and parties. The study examines 27 elections in five countries (Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland) and will include: an internet panel survey; an analysis of party strategies; and a series of experiments designed to complement the analyses of party and voter behaviour. For more information, see: http://www.electoraldemocracy.com.
Applicants must demonstrate research interest and skills in the quantitative study of elections. The fellow will be actively involved in various aspects of the study, and will have the opportunity to collaborate and co-author with the co-investigators of the project. He/she will have an office at the Canada Research Chair in Electoral Studies at the Université de Montréal and will work on a daily basis with Professor André Blais, the director of the study.
The annual stipend is $40,000 (CAN). Travel expenses for up to two conferences (at which the fellow presents a paper) per year (maximum of $1,000 per conference) are reimbursed.
The fellowship is due to start in September 2010. The successful applicant must have defended his / her dissertation prior to the start date. The deadline for applications is March 1, 2010. Applicants should email their CV, a short letter, and the names of two referees to:
andre.blais@umontreal.ca.
Professor André Blais
Canada Research Chair in Electoral Studies
Département de science politique
Université de Montréal