The new(ish) site PollVault.com (tagline "Elections made easy") aims to use social media to help you go vote. They aim to do this by connecting you to people so that, as their press release says, “ you don't have to know the answer, you just need to know who does.” Users can "choose up to ten Advisors whose positions they trust and request to follow them. If an individual accepts the role of an Advisor, a customized dashboard with his or her private ... ballot choices appears, giving approved subscribers the ability to learn more about his or her position on key issues. Voters use the ... Read More
Ronald McDonald, Swing Voter
August 6, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
If that bumper sticker or yard sign wasn’t enough to publicize your political stance, then the Chick Fil-A tempest in a Styrofoam cup, with its attendant kiss-ins and appreciation days, gives you another chance to let your flag fly. But in the absence of a Chick Fil-A, or on a Sunday when its closed, where does a budding Democrat or latent Republican dine (or demonstrate) to show their affiliation? Sunday, the Los Angeles Times offered a handy chart (click here to see it) on its op-ed page showing many popular U.S. fast food and fast casual restaurants and plotting where their patrons ... Read More
Hidden Patterns in Presidential Voting
July 6, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
With the Republican field finally solidifying, the 2012 presidential campaign season is finally off to the races. For the next 16 months, political pundits will spend hour after hour analyzing the most minor twist and turns in the campaigns — even though almost all of the day-to-day political zigs and zags will make no difference to voters in the end. But what if even the big issues — like the economy and the multiple wars that we are engaged in — didn't matter to voters either? According to Nathan Collins, a political scientist at the Santa Fe Institute, if you look at voting ... Read More
A Promise and a Throng Ups Voter Turnout
August 18, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Barack Obama recently e-mailed his legion of supporters — Democrats who gave up an e-mail address at some point during the 2008 campaign — to ask them to "commit" to vote in this fall's midterm elections. The president (or whoever writes the e-mails signed with his name) was, in the process, tapping into social science. Experimental research shows that when people say they intend to do something, they're more likely to actually do it. "This simple but powerful concept helped us make history in 2008, when first-time voters who made a commitment played a critical role in the election," ... Read More
