...Interim Report ICT use in Getting out the Vote in recent US Presidential Elections: A Tale of Two Solutions. Xxxxxxxxxxxxx (for module ISM106) December 13, 2012 Contents. 1.0 Background and Objectives………………………………………………..3 2.0 Literature Search and Methodology………………………………………4 3.0 GOTV - The Problem Domain…………………………………………….5 4.0 Timetable……………………………………………………………………7 5.0 References…………………………………………………………………..8 “Good judgment comes from experience, but a lot of that comes from bad judgment”. Will Rogers, American Humorist (1879-1935). 1.0 Background and Objectives. Getting out the vote (GOTV) is a very important activity in an election campaign. Within a typical polling precinct, campaign fieldworkers identify and confirm voters who pledge to vote for their candidate. A list of these voters is carefully compiled for each precinct, with up-to-date contact information and whether assistance is needed in getting voters to the polling station being crucial. On Election Day, campaign workers at the polling stations monitor the voters on the list and record which have voted and which have not. Great effort is then expended on contacting the “laggards” and getting them out to vote. Periodically during the day, voter turnout data is sent, through aggregation points, to campaign HQ where it updates the big picture and allows the co-ordination and refocusing of further GOTV efforts. The purpose of...
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...I. Intro When voting day arrives, you stand in line, the poll workers check your identification, you vote, and within 10 minutes, you are done. But what happens when you are in a wheel chair and you arrive to your polling location but the voting booth is too high to reach and you can’t fit. Or your manually and visually impaired and have no one to help you fill out your ballot. II. Question With all the state and federal laws in place –including the American’s with Disabilities Act, there are polling places still not making the proper accommodations for people with disabilities. So you might wonder now, has anything been done to ensure all polling locations are updated to fit the needs of all people with disabilities? III. History The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 and is a federal law which prohibits voting discrimination based on color, race, or membership in a language minority group (http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Voting+Rights+Act+of+1965). The act prohibits the states and their political parties from imposing voting qualifications or perquisites from voting that deny them the right to vote. Furthermore, 40 years later and people with disabilities are still being discriminated against around the time of elections. Some people even question if individuals with disabilities are able to vote and understand what they are voting for. Studies have shown that people with disabilities are interested in government and public affairs (http://www.accessiblesociety...
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...to become a poll worker on election day. As a soon to be High school graduate working as a cafe barista in the local mall, I figured the experience would offer a good opportunity to earn some extra spending money. Of course, as I soon figured out, the stipend, spread out over 15 hours, amounts to less than the minimum wage. So my real motivation for working on election day would be to fulfill a sense of civic duty -- and simultaneously satisfy my curiosity about how the mechanics of a democracy really work, all the way down at the level of punch cards and chads. Despite lacking any prior election experience, I was assigned by the county registrar to the highest post there is: inspector. This meant that I was in charge of opening and closing the polls, managing three election clerks and arbitrating often-murky cases of voter eligibility. A few days before the vote, I attended a pre-election training class at University of Miami For an hour and a half, I listened to an energetic, spastic man speak to us about voting procedures. Like a motivational speaker, he circulated around the room with a wireless microphone and did his best to raise our level of enthusiasm. Thanks to him, I learned how to dislodge faulty punch-card ballots from voting machines -- but not much else. Many in the room appeared to be recently naturalized citizens with little grasp of English. An official Korean translator stood by to explain the main points of the class to a cluster of aspiring poll workers huddled...
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...The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868. It guaranteed equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. Although this was not the case as the years progressed. Many states in the south implemented rules such as a literacy tests, civics tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and violence. Many colored people’s voting rights were opressed up until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was passed. Despite the rights guaranteed by the 14th amendment, the racial discrimination going on at polls did not begin to change until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was passed. A key force in this process were the multiple protests and...
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...Politics in rural area of Pakistan It is commonly observed that when state fails to furnish its inhabitants with basic human rights and needs of living, frustration level among the people springs up badly. People show reluctance in obeying the laws and some kind of anarchy is prevailed all around the country. As a result of which law and order situation is critically maladjusted. The word CHANGE catches more attention in this case. The only path leading us to alter the overall demeanor of nation is through politics. “Politics is the art of influencing people on a civic or individual level, when there are more than two people involved. It is thought of as the way we "choose government officials and make decisions about public policy".” In politics there are two major elements, politicians and voters. Politicians are the persons who stand for the right of people, contest in elections and represent the common people in the legislature. Voters are everyone else than politicians .They pick out their favorite candidate by using basic right of casting their vote in elections. These elected personalities form government and run the overall infra structure of the state. In this entire procedure of elections, the major role is played by voters and their choice of candidate. Here we will discuss the factors that decide the selection of a voter especially in remote and rural areas of Pakistan. In our country population in rural areas is much more than population in urban areas. So their...
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...Internet Writing Assignment C There are several polls that are currently being displayed. These include social issues, current election standings, and other items including things like the economy and educational issues. One poll that I found on these sites is how favorable is Donald Trump. I learned that Republicans favor him the most and Democrats dislike him the most and independent voters are somewhere in the middle. He is about 50/50 with the voters currently and slightly more unfavorable at the last poll. When he first started he was about 90% unfavorable so he has came a long way since then. After looking at both of these sites, I found that the pollingreport.com website is what I would use for a reference. Depending on what I am searching for I may turn to Gallup polls if it is regarding a social issue or something other than politics. Polling Report I found was more useful for information regarding presidential elections. For this reason I found Polling Report to be more useful especially to people in a college level political science class and to the American public. It is important to have all this poll data online because you can see how others think and you can have a reference available at all points in time. It helps us understand where we currently stand and think as a whole as a country. Polls give us a lot of information including how the people think a president is doing. Also, they are real important around election time because it shows where each candidate...
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...about the effects of poll results on voters. For example, in September 2012 when Obama was dominating the polls, Republicans latched onto the idea that the polling industry was skewing polls in Obama’s favor to give him the air of inevitability. When Gallup’s likely voter model later gave Romney a 7 point lead in mid-October, everyone started wondering not only what this meant about the election, but if could affect the election. Finally, in a quiet period during the morning after the final presidential debate, the price of the contract for Mitt Romney to win the election escalated rapidly on Intrade, only to retreat back down almost as quickly. Had someone tried to manipulate the contract to make it appear that Romney won the debate or that the election was suddenly tied? Would that be a rational use of money? To answer the burning question, researchers have long observed that people often conform to majority opinion (i.e. during every election, some people jump on the bandwagon and shift their preference to the leading candidate or the most popular policy). During elections, and major public policy events, much of the media coverage focuses on the “horse race,” or fluctuations in support for a candidate or policy. Reporting on public opinion not only affects support, but levels of engagement: donations, volunteering and turnout. These bandwagon effects can make polls self-fulfilling prophecies; the predictions of the polls come to pass because the polls not only measure public...
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...DEFENDERS of the rational-choice model of political behaviour are at it again, using “pure, raw math” to encourage people to stay home on election day. Here is how Katherine Mangu-Ward, an editor at Reason, begins her argument against exercising the franchise: In all of American history, a single vote has never determined the outcome of a presidential election... In a 2012 Economic Inquiry article, Columbia University political scientist Andrew Gelman, statistician Nate Silver, and University of California, Berkeley, economist Aaron Edlin use poll results from the 2008 election cycle to calculate that the chance of a randomly selected vote determining the outcome of a presidential election is about one in 60 million. In a couple of key states, the chance that a random vote will be decisive creeps closer to one in 10 million, which drags voters into the dubious company of people gunning for the Mega-Lotto jackpot. (emphasis added) There it is! Your vote doesn’t count. Don’t waste time watching debates, boning up on the issues, discussing politics with neighbours or friends, thinking critically about the future of your nation, dragging yourself to the polling site, pulling levers or punching chads. It is all a monumental waste of time, even if you live in Ohio. As Ms Mangu-Ward points out, staying home on election day might allow you to squeeze in “an extra hour of sleep”. And imagine how much more dozing you could enjoy if you gave up on politics completely. It’s true...
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...and the highlight of system function. The highlight of system function will be further considerable in our proposed voting system. Maryland voting system In 2001, the Maryland General Assembly passed a law that required the State Board of Elections. A Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting system as the statewide voting system for polling place voting. The DRE voting system was selected because it offers many advantages over other voting system. Function highlights Eliminate issue of voter intent Prevent “overvotes” Provide voter with a summary of selection before casting a ballot Allow most voters with disabilities to vote a secret ballot Accommodate multiple languages Easy to use In 2006, a research report of public opinion poll by the University of Maryland, that show the Maryland voters are very satisfied with this touchscreen voting system. 92% of voters who voted in the 2004 General Election had a positive experience voting on this system. Below table show the statistic report of your experience: 99% Registered voted though the voting system was easy to use 88% Voters were comfortable using the touchscreen voting system 84% Voters though the voting system made voting quicker 82% Voter though their votes were recorded and counted accurately This report and survey by UMBC on Maryland voters’ opinions about the voting system shows that Maryland voters think the voting system is accurate and easy to use. Voting system in Monash University...
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...1. What is your personal definition of politics? My personal definition of politics is a system (tacit, explicit or both) by which a subset of a population represents or governs the population (or both). I think it is only applications of this definition that vary widely. 2. What do you think are examples of political behaviours? To what extent do you engage in these behaviours in your own life? How different are these types of behaviour from what you perceive to take place in our municipal, provincial, and federal institutions? Political behaviours are essentially the private citizen stepping outside of their personal or professional life to engage in a behaviour, activity, instance or process that will affect or factor into the policy making process of the community, city or country, to whatever very small extent. In my opinion political behaviour may also amount to the expression of a view with a situation or a view regarding a suggested change or action in the decision making of the political establishment. In our democracy, the right, even the moral responsibility to participate in elections is an example of this. Speech making, volunteer work, participating in electoral campaigns, writing to the newspapers or even leaving comments on the Internet sites of newspapers, may all be considered political behaviours. I do not engage in political behaviours to a considerable extent; my extent is negligible. Often it is all I do to leave comments on the Internet regarding...
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...2. According to the text, public opinion polls are surveys that are used to get the populations’ views on certain issues. They are the most useful to policymakers and political candidates by giving them an idea on the population feelings about specific issues. They can then use that information to determine what policies to make or agendas to make during campaigning. They are also used by journalists who use the data collected from the polls to support their ideas on certain topics. They are conducted by first determining the sample population to survey depending on the topic of the poll being administered. The pollster asks the sample a series of questions to determine their opinion on the issue being focused on. This can be done in person...
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...both a review and a report on his tests of an involvement model. The level of involvement of voters in a particular election could depend on a wide range of factors, but Rothschild offers three general ones: 1. the level of the election (national/local etc.); 2. the closeness of the race; and 3. the volatility of the issues or candidates. There is some more recent work examining voter recall of political messages. Faber and Storey (1984), note voter responses to different messages and presentations (see, for example, Thorson et al., 1991), in particular negative ones (Faber et al., 1993; Garramone, 1984; Tinkham and Weaver-Lariscy, 1994). These studies used subjects in experimental groups rather than actual electoral or opinion poll data. More recently Ansolabehere and Iyengar (1995) have substantially added to the literature on negative advertising through the use of a very rounded and full quantitative and qualitative study which shows that a highly focused negative campaign can increase the turnout of those potential supporters predisposed to abstain by something in the order of approximately 29 per cent, thus maximising your supporters’ vote. Weaver-Lariscy and Tinkham (1987) investigated how Congressional election candidates evaluated different media and proposed six levels of response to political advertising. Apart from Caywood and Preston (1989) and Laczniak and Caywood’s (1987) work with others cited above, a number of authors have considered the ethical issues...
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...(Donsbach, 2007). Intertwined with each other, Public Opinion is combined view of a defined population, such as a particular demographic or ethnic group (Davinson, n.d.). Public opinion is important; because it is how regular people can be heard (The Gallup Poll Organization, 2007), in a Democratic country like the Philippines the people is the vital source of power, they are the ones who elect and the one to choose the government body of the country, thus, the opinion of the people is very important in the sense that, in order to be a good and productive government, you should know what the people need, what the people wants and what the people think and judge, for them to know how to act according to what the public perceive. As an individual, I believe that public opinion is important not only for the society but also for each individual that is living in it. Through the opinion of the public we can shape our own thoughts regarding the issues and other concerns, it might be different from them but what important is that the awareness and knowledge we could gain from the majorities opinion. For example, in the coming 2016 Presidential Election, as a first time voter, I want to learn and gain understanding from the polls and interviews coming from the citizens like me. In...
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...MEMORANDUM TO: Sanjiv Gupta FROM: Jeremy King CC: Christopher Cowan DATE: 08/07/03 SUBJECT: Coca-Cola India On August 5th, 2003 the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) issued a press release titled “Hard Truths about Soft Drinks”. Tests conducted by CSE at the Pollution Monitoring Laboratory (PML) found concerning amounts of pesticide residue in all twelve major brands of cold beverages sold in and around Delhi. Behind Tokyo, Delhi is the second largest agglomeration in the world with 23 million inhabitants2. Immediate reaction to CSE’s report on soft drinks ranged from the Indian government banning Coke (and Pepsi) products in Parliament cafeterias to widespread mistrust of the Coca-Cola India brand. Within weeks sales dropped by 30-40% and within months Coke’s stock dipped 10 percent on the NYSE1. While CSE’s report has resulted in declining sales, employee morale issues and a negative public brand perception more importantly the insecticides CSE identified are known to cause cancer, birth defects and inflict severe damage to the nervous, immune and reproductive systems. These possible health risks linked to product consumption is the single most significant ethical issue facing Coca-Cola India today. As you requested, I present the following three strategies to assist in the successful rebuilding of the Coca-Cola India brand. The objectives of each strategy are clear; sway public opinion to identify with Coca-Cola India’s dedication to...
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...First_Pages Lut30352_ch01_001-030.qxd 8/7/09 3:26 PM Page 1 Part One Environmental and Organizational Context 1. 2. 3. 4. Introduction to Organizational Behavior: An Evidence-Based Approach Environmental Context: Globalization, Diversity, and Ethics Organizational Context: Design and Culture Organizational Context: Reward Systems 5 31 57 88 EVIDENCE-BASED CONSULTING PRACTICES A major component of the evidence-based theme of this text and the link to practice are these part openers from the world-famous Gallup Organization. Gallup draws from its internationally recognized survey science and cadre of internal and external researchers (e.g., the author of this text and a Nobel Prize winner in behavioral economics are Gallup Senior Scientists), publishes its findings in the top academic journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology and provides this evidenced-based perspective and representative practices for each text part. Gallup is the recognized world leader in the measurement and analysis of human attitudes, opinions, and behavior, building on over three-quarters of a century of success. Gallup employs many of the world’s leading scientists in management, economics, psychology, and sociology. Gallup performance management systems help organizations maximize employee productivity and increase customer engagement through measurement tools, management solutions, and strategic advisory services. Gallup’s 2000 professionals deliver services on-site at client organizations...
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