ISN Council 2005–2011 Elections

Swiss Elections to the National Council: First trials with e-voting in elections at federal level

The Swiss people trust the authorities that polls are conducted legally. This trust made it possible to introduce postal voting in 1994. Since then Swiss voters automatically receive postal vote documents and may cast their vote by post without requiring any special reason to do so. Nowadays, this more convenient way to cast votes remotely is established: more than 90% of the votes are cast by ...

A Quiet Revolution: STV and the Scottish Council Elections

As in 1999 and 2003, the 2007 elections for Scottish local councils were held on the same day (May 3 rd ) as the Scottish Parliament elections. This was despite the fact that in the interim the Arbuthnott Commission, set up to report on elections in Scotland, had firmly recommended the ‘decoupling’ of the two sets of elections (Commission on Boundary Differences and Voting Systems, 2006, pp. 48...

The ISN President’s Column

The 8th ICN: The largest item looming on the agenda for the ISN is our upcoming Congress in Vancouver (July 22-27). I can tell you that we are in excellent hands with Barb Beltz chairing the Congress Committee and Cathy Rankin as the Chair of the local organizing committee. Ron Harris-Warrick and Sten Grillner are the Congress Vice-Chairs. These folks, with excellent advice from the membership ...

Is Partisan Alignment Electorally Rewarding? Evidence from Village Council Elections in India

Is Partisan Alignment Electorally Rewarding? Evidence from Village Council Elections in India* Do ruling parties positively discriminate in favour of their own constituencies in allocating public resources? If they do, do they gain electorally in engaging in such a practice? This paper tests whether partisan alignment exists in the allocation of funds for India’s largest social protection progr...

Why Is There No Partisan Competition in City Council Elections?: The Role of Election Law