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Undervote
An undervote occurs when the number of distinct choices selected by a voter in a contest is less than the maximum number allowed for that contest or when no selection is made for a single choice contest. In a contested election, an undervote can be construed as active voter disaffection: a voter engaged enough to cast a vote without the willingness to give the vote to any candidate. An undervote can be intentional for purposes including protest votes, tactical voting, or abstention. Alternately undervotes can be unintentional and caused by many factors including poor ballot design. Undervotes caused by voting for a single candidate in multiple positions is usually caused by a voter's misunderstanding of the mechanics of the preference ballot. Undervotes combined with overvotes (known as residual votes) can be an academic indicator in evaluating the accuracy of a voting system when recording voter Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Residual Vote
In voting, a ballot is considered spoilt, spoiled, void, null, informal, invalid or stray if a law declares or an election authority determines that it is invalid and thus not included in the vote count. This may occur accidentally or deliberately. The total number of spoilt votes in a United States election has been called the residual vote. In Australia, such votes are generally referred to as informal votes, and in Canada they are referred to as rejected votes. In some jurisdictions spoilt votes are counted and reported. Types of spoilt vote A ballot may be spoilt in a number of ways, including: * Failing to mark the ballot at all ( blank vote), or otherwise defacing the ballot instead of attempting to vote. * Filling out the ballot in a manner that is incompatible with the voting system being used, e.g.: ** Marking more choices than permitted (overvoting), or fewer than necessary ( undervoting). ** Filling a preference ballot out of sequence, e.g. 1-2-2-3-4 or 1-2-4-5 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Election Assistance Commission
The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is an independent agency of the United States government created by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). The Commission serves as a national clearinghouse and resource of information regarding election administration. It is charged with administering payments to states and developing guidance to meet HAVA requirements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, and accrediting voting system test laboratories and certifying voting equipment. It is also charged with developing and maintaining a national mail voter registration form. Responsibilities The EAC is tasked with performing a number of election-related duties including: * creating and maintaining the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines * creating a national program for the testing, certification, and decertification of voting systems * maintaining the National Mail Voter Registration Form required by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) * reporting to Congress ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protest Vote
A protest vote (also called a blank, null, spoiled, or "none of the above" vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or the current political system. Protest voting takes a variety of forms and reflects numerous voter motivations, including political alienation. Where voting is compulsory, casting a blank vote is available for those who do not wish to choose a candidate, or to protest. Unlike abstention elsewhere, blank votes are counted. Along with abstention, or not voting, protest voting is a sign of unhappiness with available options. If protest vote takes the form of a blank vote, it may or may not be tallied into final results. Protest votes may be considered spoiled or, depending on the electoral system, counted as "none of the above" votes. Types of protest vote Protest votes can take many different forms: * Blank ballots * Null ballots * Spoiled ballots * None of the above votes * Votes for a fringe candidate o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tactical Voting
Strategic voting, also called tactical voting, sophisticated voting or insincere voting, occurs in voting systems when a voter votes for another candidate or party than their ''sincere preference'' to prevent an undesirable outcome. For example, in a simple plurality election, a voter might gain a better outcome by voting for a less preferred but more generally popular candidate. Gibbard's theorem shows that ''all'' single-winner voting methods are susceptible to strategic voting, unless there are only two options or ''dictatorial'' (i.e., a distinguished agent exists who can impose the outcome). For multi-winner elections no general theorem for strategic voting exists. Strategic voting is observed due to non-proportionality, electoral thresholds and quotas. Types of strategic voting ; (sometimes "useful vote"): A voter insincerely ranks an alternative higher in the hope of getting that candidate elected. For example, in the first-past-the-post election, voters may vote for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abstention
Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with "blank vote", in which a voter casts a ballot willfully made invalid by marking it wrongly or by not marking anything at all. A "blank (or white) voter" has voted, although their vote may be considered a spoilt vote, depending on each legislation, while an abstaining voter has not voted. Both forms (abstention and blank vote) may or may not, depending on the circumstances, be considered to be a protest vote (also known as a "blank vote" or "white vote"). An abstention may be used to indicate the voting individual's ambivalence about the measure, or mild disapproval that does not rise to the level of active opposition. Abstention can also be used when someone has a certain position about an issue, but since the popular sentiment supports th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballot Design
A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16th century. Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use pre-printed ballots to protect the secrecy of the votes. The voter casts their ballot in a box at a polling station. In British English, this is usually called a "ballot paper". The word ''ballot'' is used for an election process within an organization (such as a trade union "holding a ballot" of its members). Etymology The word ballot comes from Italian ''ballotta'', meaning a "small ball used in voting" or a "secret vote taken by ballots" in Venice, Italy. History In ancient Greece, citizens used pieces of broken pot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
