[NON-SATIRE] Poll Results Show Europeia Divided On Voting System

[Forilian]

A REAL NEWSPAPER HQ, ARNHELM- Recently, the ARN conducted a poll on the Europeian voting system, after the Senate by-election caused some discussion on whether results should be private or public while the election is going on, or whether voters should be able to change their votes. What we found was that Europeia is currently split on this issue. Here’s the data:

Spoiler

First off, we have the question where we asked respondents how long they’d been in Europeia. We asked this question to see if there was a correlation between time in Europeia and view on voting system. We found none.

Spoiler

Now, here’s a juicy part: just under three quarters of respondents were satisfied with our voting system, with one-fifth saying they were deeply satisfied. 11% of respondents were unsure, while nearly one-sixth were dissatisfied. This may indicate that our voting system does not need change at this point. However, the ratio of satisfied to strongly satisfied responses may indicate that our system can still be tweaked.

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Here we have some comments on our voting system. There was a concern about lack of consistency, as well as a comment about how the system can be made more cohesive to newcomers. Overall, I believe these are legitimate concerns that Europeia as a whole can look into.

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Now we have the data on whether vote results in Europeia should remain public/private throughout the election. Europeia is split on this issue: 50% would like polls to all be public, while 42.3% would like them to be private. Therefore, the 7.7% who are neutral or have no opinion may be the deciding factor if this ever comes up to vote. Throughout the duration of this poll, the pro-public faction hovered at 50-60%, always having slightly more than the pro-private faction. Therefore, I’d say that while the issue is split, the pro-public faction do have a slight edge. Although, as I have stated before, the 7.7% undecided may be the deciding factor ultimately.

Spoiler

Most of the comments were pro-public, which may indicate that pro-public respondents feel strongly about public voting, more so than pro-private respondents feel about private voting. There is a general agreement here that making vote results public would “make elections more fun and exciting” and that “it is nice to track an election as it goes on”. There was also a concern that making vote results private would “suck the life out of election day”.

Spoiler

Interestingly, nearly 40% of all respondents would support being able to change your vote in the middle of an election in some sort. Although there seems to be some support for switching votes, these respondents are divided when it comes to under what circumstances should switching votes be allowed, so I do not believe switching votes will be allowed in Europeian elections anytime soon.

Spoiler

Most of the comments here were against switching votes, so this may indicate that people against vote switching feel more strongly about this than vice versa. There were concerns that allowing vote switching would allow “strategic voting” instead of voting candidates in based on merit.

Overall, this shows that Europeia as a whole is split on this issue. Currently, I believe, we only need minor changes to our system, perhaps making the system more consistent or educating citizens on our voting system. Major reform of the voting system is not needed, unless a major change in opinion happens. Please tell us about your view on this issue below.
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[Lethen]

I've really hashed out my thoughts on most of these topics elsewhere, so here's some quick takes instead:

Perhaps platforms could be posted into one thread, and that thread be advertised through telegram? It would also be nice if newcomers could learn more about the candidates as individuals

Instead of one thread, may I offer you an entire forum or perhaps a standing thread? And newcomers can learn about the candidates through forum and Discord interactions

More consistency, if anything. [...] Not applying some rules for certain elections and different ones for others

I've seen comments like this one in other polls, and it was the topic of a Grand Hall thread, but I don't buy this as something that's truly confusing or inconsistent. Can someone enlighten me here?

Also when did this idea pop up about changing our votes during elections? That's such a strange development.

 

[Maowi]

Nice polling and analysis, Fori!

Also when did this idea pop up about changing our votes during elections? That's such a strange development.

I don't know if that's where Fori got the idea of polling it from, but I was vaguely wondering about the idea the other day in eurochat ... although only if vote tallies were hidden. Otherwise it would get crazy.

 

[Forilian]

Nice polling and analysis, Fori!

Thank you Maowi!

Also when did this idea pop up about changing our votes during elections? That's such a strange development.

I don't know if that's where Fori got the idea of polling it from, but I was vaguely wondering about the idea the other day in eurochat ... although only if vote tallies were hidden. Otherwise it would get crazy.

Yes.