Elections & Voting

Watch

• How India runs the world's biggest election ↗Vox
• General election 2019: The voting system explained - BBC News ↗BBC News
• After Bush v. Gore: 2000 Election Documentary | Retro Report | The New York Times ↗The New York Times

Read

• An Economic Theory of Democracy ↗This seminal work applies rational choice theory to political behaviour, explaining why parties converge and voters participate, or abstain.Anthony Downs
• The American Voter ↗A landmark empirical study that introduced the concept of party identification, fundamentally shaping our understanding of electoral behaviour in the United States.Angus Campbell, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, Donald E. Stokes
• The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies ↗A provocative challenge to the assumption of voter rationality, arguing that systematic biases in public opinion lead to suboptimal policy outcomes.Bryan Caplan
• The Calculus of VotingThis influential paper formalises the rational choice model of voter participation, introducing the critical 'D' term for civic duty.William H. Riker and Peter C. Ordeshook
• The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass PublicsA foundational critique of the coherence and stability of public opinion, demonstrating that most citizens lack well-structured ideological belief systems.Philip E. Converse

Voices to follow

• Larry Sabato ↗His 'Crystal Ball' predictions offer a granular, often prescient, view into American electoral contests.Political scientist and Director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics
• Nate Silver ↗A pioneer in data journalism, his probabilistic models demystify the complexities of election outcomes.Statistician, founder of FiveThirtyEight
• Pippa Norris ↗Her extensive research on electoral integrity and democratic backsliding provides crucial insights into the health of global democracies.Political scientist and Professor at Harvard University
• Yascha Mounk ↗He incisively diagnoses the threats to liberal democracy, examining how voting patterns reflect broader societal shifts.Political scientist and Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University

Glossary

• BallotA ballot is the piece of paper or electronic screen used to record a voter's choice in an election. It lists all the candidates or options you can vote for. For example, when you fill out a survey form to pick your favorite sports team, that form is like a ballot.
• CampaignA campaign is a series of organized activities that a candidate or political party carries out to try and convince voters to support them. This includes giving speeches, putting up posters, and meeting people. For example, if you're trying to get elected as class monitor, you might campaign by telling your classmates why you'd be a good leader.
• CandidateA candidate is a person who is trying to get elected to a public office or position. They are the ones whose names appear on the ballot. For example, if your friend decides to run for class president, they become a candidate for that position.
• ConstituencyA constituency is a specific geographic area or region that elects one or more representatives to a legislative body, like a parliament or assembly. Only people living in that area can vote for the candidates running there. For example, your neighborhood and surrounding areas might form one constituency, and people living there vote for their local representative.
• ElectionAn election is a formal process where people choose their leaders or representatives by casting votes. It's how a community decides who will make decisions on their behalf. For example, your school might hold an election to choose student council members, where students vote for who they want to represent them.
• MajorityA majority means more than half of the total votes or members. In many elections, the candidate who gets the majority of votes wins. For example, if 10 students vote for a class leader, the person who gets 6 or more votes has the majority and wins.
• ManifestoA manifesto is a public declaration by a candidate or political party that explains their goals, promises, and plans if they are elected. It tells voters what they stand for. For example, before a school election, a candidate might share a list of things they promise to do, like getting better sports equipment – that's their manifesto.
• Political PartyA political party is a group of people who share similar ideas about how the country or a community should be governed, and they work together to elect their members to office. They often have a common symbol and leader. For example, in a game, if several friends team up because they all want to achieve the same goal, they are acting like a small political party.
• Polling StationA polling station is the specific place where voters go to cast their votes in an election. It's usually a public building like a school or community center. For example, on election day, your local school building might be used as a polling station where adults from your area go to vote.
• VoteA vote is a formal choice or opinion that a person expresses, usually in an election, to select a candidate or decide on an issue. It's your way of saying who you support. For example, when you pick your favorite flavor of ice cream, that's like casting a vote for that flavor.
• VoterA voter is a person who has the right to cast a vote in an election. In India, you become a voter when you turn 18. For example, your parents are likely voters because they are old enough to participate in national and local elections.

Threads 5

Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Geometry in the Real World Mathematics

  Imagine drawing voting-district lines so twisty they look like a splattered inkblot, all to cram your rivals' voters into one district and scatter the rest. That's gerrymandering, and courts now catch it with actual geometry: they measure how weird and contorted a shape is. If a district looks like a crab that got run over, the math flags it as rigged.

• Map Scale and Gerrymandering Geography

  Redraw the lines around who votes where, and you can pick the winner without changing a single person's vote. That's gerrymandering. It works because the answer depends on how you group people, not just what they want, so the mapmaker quietly rigs the result.

• Logic, Proof & Verification Mathematics

  Every voting system feels like it should be fixable to be perfectly fair. A mathematician named Arrow proved it can't be done: no method can satisfy a few basic fairness rules all at once, once there are three or more choices. A flawless democracy isn't just difficult to build; it's logically impossible.

• Modelling & Simulation Mathematics

  When a famous poll predicts an election, people read it and change how they vote, which wrecks the very prediction. It's a weird loop: a model of people that gets popular starts to break itself. The closer everyone watches the forecast, the less likely it is to come true.

• Prime Numbers Mathematics

  Voting seems stuck with a trade-off: keep your ballot secret, or let people verify the count, but not both. Clever math from internet security can do both at once, proving your vote was counted without revealing who you picked. It dissolves a problem democracy long thought was unavoidable.