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Post by therealriga on Apr 20, 2022 10:01:03 GMT
I found this last year on an old hard drive: all 64,000 ballots from the 2002 Dáil election in Meath. As background, they experimented that year with electronic voting in 3 constituencies. After, they made all the ballots available in spreadsheet format. This was criticised as breaching voter privacy and also for potentially making corruption more likely. Someone could pay a voter to vote 1-2-3 for their candidates and then number everyone else in an agreed random order, so that the payee could check. Using the filters, there are some predictably amusing votes. 2 people simply voted for everyone in numerical order, another in reverse numerical order, while 3 voted for the FF or FG runners in order then numbered everyone else in numerical order. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18mMLkhzyCGFdC89Vj1Pfa0UVDwR_GZOn/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106562111439620586159&rtpof=true&sd=true |
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J.G.Harston
Lib Dem
Leave-voting Brexit-supporting Liberal Democrat
Posts: 13,589 
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Post by J.G.Harston on Apr 20, 2022 10:53:11 GMT
I found this last year on an old hard drive: all 64,000 ballots from the 2002 Dáil election in Meath. As background, they experimented that year with electronic voting in 3 constituencies. After, they made all the ballots available in spreadsheet format. This was criticised as breaching voter privacy and also for potentially making corruption more likely. Someone could pay a voter to vote 1-2-3 for their candidates and then number everyone else in an agreed random order, so that the payee could check. Using the filters, there are some predictably amusing votes. 2 people simply voted for everyone in numerical order, another in reverse numerical order, while 3 voted for the FF or FG runners in order then numbered everyone else in numerical order. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18mMLkhzyCGFdC89Vj1Pfa0UVDwR_GZOn/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106562111439620586159&rtpof=true&sd=trueGood job there weren't more than 65,535 voters.....  |
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Post by No Offence Alan on Apr 20, 2022 19:34:27 GMT
These audit files have been available for Scottish local elections since the introduction of electronic counting in 2007. LEAP (thank you andrewteale) has links. |
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Post by 🏴☠️ Neath West 🏴☠️ on Apr 20, 2022 20:10:57 GMT
It's fascinating, but it really does reënforce the "what a bloody stupid electoral system" take on it.
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Post by therealriga on Apr 20, 2022 20:50:20 GMT
It's fascinating, but it really does reënforce the "what a bloody stupid electoral system" take on it. I think a relatively simple change would be to have randomised ballot papers. 10 candidates, candidate A is first on 10%, second on 10% etc. A big problem is that a lot of voters clearly don't know the importance of lower preferences, with some appearing to think it's a points based system. |
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Post by therealriga on Apr 20, 2022 20:55:39 GMT
These audit files have been available for Scottish local elections since the introduction of electronic counting in 2007. LEAP (thank you andrewteale ) has links. I saw that some while ago but the zip folder came out as "BLT file format" and I wasn't able to open them? |
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Post by greenchristian on Apr 20, 2022 20:59:30 GMT
It's fascinating, but it really does reënforce the "what a bloody stupid electoral system" take on it. I think a relatively simple change would be to have randomised ballot papers. 10 candidates, candidate A is first on 10%, second on 10% etc. A big problem is that a lot of voters clearly don't know the importance of lower preferences, with some appearing to think it's a points based system. Half the electorate is of below average intelligence. I like to think that the bottom half are much less likely to vote than the top half, but that may be wishful thinking on my part. |
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Post by finsobruce on Apr 20, 2022 21:04:57 GMT
These audit files have been available for Scottish local elections since the introduction of electronic counting in 2007. LEAP (thank you andrewteale ) has links. I saw that some while ago but the zip folder came out as "BLT file format" and I wasn't able to open them? I like a good Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato but as a file format it is pretty useless.  |
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Post by No Offence Alan on Apr 20, 2022 21:07:25 GMT
These audit files have been available for Scottish local elections since the introduction of electronic counting in 2007. LEAP (thank you andrewteale ) has links. I saw that some while ago but the zip folder came out as "BLT file format" and I wasn't able to open them? Try opening each .BLT file in Notepad, save it as a .txt file, then copy and paste into an Excel spreadsheet, then use text-to-columns to separate out the figures. Phew! |
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J.G.Harston
Lib Dem
Leave-voting Brexit-supporting Liberal Democrat
Posts: 13,589
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Post by J.G.Harston on Apr 20, 2022 21:13:58 GMT
I saw that some while ago but the zip folder came out as "BLT file format" and I wasn't able to open them? Try opening each .BLT file in Notepad, save it as a .txt file, then copy and paste into an Excel spreadsheet, then use text-to-columns to separate out the figures. Phew! If it's just plain text, then just load into Excel (other spreadsheet programs are available) and then use text-to-columns.
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Post by minionofmidas on Apr 20, 2022 21:18:26 GMT
It's fascinating, but it really does reënforce the "what a bloody stupid electoral system" take on it. I think a relatively simple change would be to have randomised ballot papers. 10 candidates, candidate A is first on 10%, second on 10% etc. A big problem is that a lot of voters clearly don't know the importance of lower preferences, with some appearing to think it's a points based system. actually I'd prefer to go Maltese on this and group candidates by party. |
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xenon
Non-Aligned
Posts: 242
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Post by xenon on Apr 20, 2022 21:32:52 GMT
I think a relatively simple change would be to have randomised ballot papers. 10 candidates, candidate A is first on 10%, second on 10% etc. A big problem is that a lot of voters clearly don't know the importance of lower preferences, with some appearing to think it's a points based system. actually I'd prefer to go Maltese on this and group candidates by party. In true Blue Peter fashion, here's one I made earlier, to demonstrate how this might work in a British context (in this case for a ward in Dundee):  I've gone for alphabetical order within each party, but you could opt to let the parties decide the ordering of their candidates. I think this style is far easier to navigate than the current A to Z free-for-all used in Scotland and Ireland, and would be especially useful in areas where the same party stands four or five candidates (like some of the more partisan Stormont constituencies). |
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