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Following the publication of the ESMA Final Report and Feedback Statement on the Consultation Regarding the Role of the Proxy Advisory Industry in February 2013, a number of industry members formed a committee under the independent chairmanship of Prof. Dr. Dirk Andreas Zetzsche, LL.M. (Toronto), to develop an industry code of conduct. The "Best Practice Principles for Providers of Shareholder Voting Research & Analysis" were published in April 2014. With this report, the chair aims to make the committee's work and discussions transparent to facilitate the application of the provisions and enhance understanding of the reasoning behind their adoption. The report also aims to enhance transparency and understanding on the functioning of Providers of Shareholder Voting Research & Analysis (to which is commonly referred to as the proxy advisors) and their role in corporate governance and assist in creating a more informed discussion. The report is structured as follows: After an introduction (sub 1.), I describe the composition and work organization of the drafting committee for the Principles (sub 2.), before I explain the Committee's as well as the Chair's position on the certain provisions of the Principles (sub 3.). The report discusses, inter alia, the scope of the Principles, the Committee's general approach, the delineation of responsibility between proxy advisors, institutional investors and issuers that forms the basis of the Principles, the attitude of the industry towards local governance standards, and how Signatories should deal with conflicts of interests. A major section of the report is devoted to the communication between issuers and Providers of Shareholder Voting Research & Analysis (sub 4.). In particular I explain why a mandatory distribution of research report to issuers would put the providers' commitment vis-à-vis their clients (the investors) at risk. I further undertake to outline how the Principles may be enforced (sub 5.) and describe the next steps on the Committee's agenda (sub 6.). Three further documents issued by the Committee are annexed to the report: I. The "Best Practice Principles for Providers of Shareholder Voting Research & Analysis" discussed in the report, II. The consultation document distributed by the Committee to stakeholders in fall 2013, and III. The Feedback Statement on the Consultation.

The main focus of this brief is to discover how being an immigrant in the United States affects their voting behavior. Through learning more about the process immigrants have to go through to become a U.S. citizen, a better understanding of what drives their voting behavior will be discovered.

The focus of this brief is to identify minority religions in the U.S., analyze their voting behavior and note any correlations between religious affiliation and political parties and/or ideologies.

In this brief analysis, we use a new dataset of two million voter registration records to demonstrate that gender, race, and age do not correlate with political participation in the ways that previous research has shown. Among Blacks and Latinos, women participate at vastly higher rates than men; many Blacks participate at higher rates than Whites; and the relationship between age and participation is both not linear and varies by race and gender. Survey research is unable to capture the true relationship between demographics and participation on account of survey bias and, more importantly, the non-linearity of effects. As a result, theories of participation, like the dominant resources-based models, have been built on faulty premises and tested with inadequate data. Our evidence calls for a renewed effort to understand election participation by utilizing large datasets, by being attentive to linearity assumptions, and by returning to theory.

In recent years, Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) have become a relevant object of political science research. The aim of this paper is to develop a map of the existing literature and to outline a research agenda for this increasingly relevant tool and its role within modern democracies. Starting point of the paper is the dissemination of VAAs in Europe, focusing on the differences and similarities between the main types of VAAs. After having outlined the reasons for the dramatic spread of VAAs among European countries and voters, we provide an overview on the existing VAA literature. We then present a comparative research agenda for the VAAs by identifying questions that could be posed to the tools and their role out of different analytical perspectives. In the conclusion, we bring forward the argument that VAAs might matter even more in the future, indicating the need for a coordinated research effort. ; Special Issue on Voting Advice Applications and State of the Art: Theory, Practice, and Comparative Insights

online voting is achieving momentum in modern society. It has splendid potential to decrease organizational prices and growth voter turnout. It gets rid of the need to print poll papers or open polling stations, citizens can vote from wherever there is a web connection. Online voting solutions, on the other hand, are viewed with caution since they constitute a new threat. Electronic voting mechanisms must be legitimate, accurate, safe and convenient since a single flaw will be able to create a massive vote tampering. Adoption may be hampered by possible issues with processes. blockchain technology is introduced to beat those problems; it provides decentralized nodes for electronic voting and is used to dispense electronic voting structures particularly because of their end to end verification assistance. This technology possessing distribution, non-repudiation and protection characteristics is a quality alternative for usual digital voting solutions. The intention of this paper is to look over its associated trouble in future advancements and the block chain based voting research and online voting system status quo. This study provides a conceptual description of the intended blockchain-based totally digital vote casting utility and an introduction to the blockchain's basic structure and properties in relation to digital balloting. As a result of the research, it was identified that blockchain structures can also help to resolve some of the challenges of ongoing election systems. The most frequently reported issues with blockchain packaging on the other hand are privacy, security and transaction speed. The safety of remote participation should be attainable and transaction speed must be addressed in a viable blockchain based complete electronic balloting complex. Because of these issues, it was determined that current architecture truly needed when they would be deployed in voting systems

The outcome of the 29 March 2009 Turkish local administrations election is analyzed in light of economic voting literature, both from historical and geographical perspectives. First, the nationwide vote share of the incumbent party (AKP) is compared to what would be expected based on the patterns observed in the past twenty-six National Assembly, Senate, and Provincial Council elections held between 1951 and 2007. For this purpose a vote equation is estimated using aggregate nationwide time-series data. This equation takes into account the roles played by economic conditions, political inertia, incumbency factors, strategic voting by the electorate, and the political realignments. Second, inter-party vote movements between the 2007 parliamentary and the 2009 local administrations elections are analyzed, through systems of party vote equations, estimated separately for different regions of the country, using cross-provincial data. The results obtained show that the outcome of the 2009 election was predictable on the basis of historical patterns. The vote loses of the AKP is attributable mainly to two transitory factors: poor economic conditions prevailing at the time of the election and typical strategicvoting experienced in local elections. The party's vote losses tended to be higher in the east than in the west and in provinces where its support is high than where it is low. The voters who deserted the AKP went to the DP, SP and DTP, in the mid-eastern and south-eastern Anatolia, and to the MHP and SP, in the rest of the country. ; peer-reviewed

As the public debate over stem cell research continues, the observable voting behaviour in Switzerland offers a unique opportunity to compare the voting behaviour of politicians with that of voters. In this paper, by analysing the outcomes of a referendum on a liberal new bill regulating such research, we reveal an almost 10 percentage point lower probability of the bill being accepted by politicians than by a representative sample of voters. Whereas the politicians' behaviour is driven almost entirely by party affiliation, citizen votes are driven not only by party attachment but also by church attendance. Seldom or never attending church increases the probability of bill acceptance by over 23 percentage points, while supporting the Christian Democratic Party makes supporting the bill less likely for voters, suggesting that religious observance is important. The observance of these tendencies in Switzerland – an environment that promotes discussion through direct democratic rights – strongly suggests that citizens see the benefits of stem cell research.

The E-voting promises the possibility of convenient, easy and safe way to capture and count the votes in an election. The advancement in the mobile devices, wireless and web technologies given rise to the new application that will make the voting process very easy and efficient. This research project provides the specification and requirements for E-Voting using an Android platform. The authentication is done through the face recognition through the mobile camera application. In this method the voter has to register using the application and the face recognition will be provided once the registration is successful. The e-voting means the voting process in election by using electronic device. The android platform is used to develop an e-voting application. In the proposed method the concept of e-voting application is created using android.On scanning the face, the voter will be asked for the password. Once the authentication is done the voter is made to proceed with the voting process. The main purpose of implementing this concept is to increase the voting percentage. So that the voter is not required to visit the voting center to cast their vote and also to avoid fake voting.

In 2008 the first Swiss canton introduced internet voting for expatriates, thus initiating the second phase in Switzerland's piecemeal i-voting roll-out. More cantons soon followed, and as of this writing expatriates from 12 out of the 26 cantons can vote online. This paper focuses on the second phase involving expatriates. We address three questions at the core of the internet voting research agenda. First, the popularity question: to what extent do expatriates make use of the new online channel? Second, the 'who' question: what is the profile of the typical expatriate i-voter? Finally, the turnout question: did the extension of internet voting to the expatriates have an effect on electoral mobilization? Our findings indicate that the online channel is very popular among expatriates, both if compared to other trials in Switzerland itself and internationally. On the other hand, known patterns regarding the profile of i-voters and the effect on mobilization seem to be also replicated in the expatriate trials. Expatriate i-voters tend to be young, male, and there is some evidence of an upper-class bias. Thus, usage of the online channel seems driven by the digital divide also among expatriates. Moreover, we find some evidence that i-voting did not affect electoral mobilization, similarly to trials involving residents.

This research aims at highlighting the importance of General Ballot as a necessary political target since the general ballot process is a main principle of democracy where many countries worldwide have integrated it in practice in order to grant its citizens the opportunity to share in power.This research paper has been divided into two sections. The first one examines the general theory of voting rights. This includes its definition, importance, historical background and its legal classifications. The second section discusses the general ballot in comparative laws.The study concludes that the expansion of Electors base has become a vital matter in order to strengthen the democratic process where the increase in using the electorate system shall combat corruption and illegal practices that adversely affect the will of voters.

Internationally, declining voter turnout is a topic of considerable concern in many liberal democracies. In this article, we investigate whether these similar trends can be discerned in the voter turnout for Māori governance entities. We first explore some of the demographic contexts within which Māori governance entities operate with a specific focus on population, residence, and age. We then provide a detailed descriptive analysis of voting data from one particular entity: Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa, with whom we worked to understand how their elections inform their aspirations for continuing connectedness with tribal members. In the final section of the article, we present findings from an analysis of publicly available tribal voting data to see whether the trend of declining voter turnout is observable and whether online voting is shown to impact turnout.

Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) are online tools that assist citizens with their voting decisions. They are offered to voters before elections in many countries and have experienced remarkable success. Recently flourishing research on VAAs addresses this phenomenon and provides explanations for the dissemination and popularity of these tools. Moreover, VAAs have been analyzed regarding their effects on political parties, candidates, and on voters in regard to their electoral behavior. Research shows that using a VAA indeed makes a difference, while the effect depends strongly on the way a VAA is designed and by whom it is used. The abundance of data generated by VAAs bears potential for comparative studies of public opinion and party systems over time and across countries, and thereby bridges research on VAAs to general questions of political science research.

The purpose of this research is to find out trust elements in e-voting systems and possible ways of implementation of them in IS. The objects of research are theoretical Lithuanian e-voting system's concept and Geneva's e-Voting, Estonian I-Voting systems. The main tasks were performed in order to solve this research problem: theoretical trust in e-government models were analysed, the research of trust elements in Lithuanian e-voting system's concept and Geneva's e-Voting, Estonian I-Voting systems were done, complex trust model in e-voting were described and finally the experiment was done. Methods used in research – analysis of scientifical literature, the complex trust in e-voting model is created in order to find out it's validity, experiment consisting of questionaire is made. The results and conclusions of research – after analysis of trust models in e-government we concluded that these factors can be divided into two groups - pre-interactional factors: individual citizen, institutional attributes, technology and interactional factors: product/service attributes, transactional delivery and fulfilment of services and information content attributes. After analysis of Lithuanian e-voting system's concept and Geneva's e-Voting, Estonian I-Voting systems trust elements were defined. The experiment – a questionaire gave results that the most important factors while creating e-voting systems in order to stimulate citizens trust are citizens confidenciality, trust in governemnt, system's visibility – confirmation of vote have been registered, system's accuracy – safe authentification and wide selection of help services. Pages in total: 68, sum of tables: 9, sum of pictures: 46.

The purpose of this research is to find out trust elements in e-voting systems and possible ways of implementation of them in IS. The objects of research are theoretical Lithuanian e-voting system's concept and Geneva's e-Voting, Estonian I-Voting systems. The main tasks were performed in order to solve this research problem: theoretical trust in e-government models were analysed, the research of trust elements in Lithuanian e-voting system's concept and Geneva's e-Voting, Estonian I-Voting systems were done, complex trust model in e-voting were described and finally the experiment was done. Methods used in research – analysis of scientifical literature, the complex trust in e-voting model is created in order to find out it's validity, experiment consisting of questionaire is made. The results and conclusions of research – after analysis of trust models in e-government we concluded that these factors can be divided into two groups - pre-interactional factors: individual citizen, institutional attributes, technology and interactional factors: product/service attributes, transactional delivery and fulfilment of services and information content attributes. After analysis of Lithuanian e-voting system's concept and Geneva's e-Voting, Estonian I-Voting systems trust elements were defined. The experiment – a questionaire gave results that the most important factors while creating e-voting systems in order to stimulate citizens trust are citizens confidenciality, trust in governemnt, system's visibility – confirmation of vote have been registered, system's accuracy – safe authentification and wide selection of help services. Pages in total: 68, sum of tables: 9, sum of pictures: 46.