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Effects of candidate position on ballot papers: Exploratory visualization of voter choice in the London local council elections 2010

Badawood, D. & Wood, J. (2012). Effects of candidate position on ballot papers: Exploratory visualization of voter choice in the London local council elections 2010. Paper presented at the Geographic Information Science Research UK 19th Annual Conference (GISRUK 2011), 27 - 29 Apr 2011, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK.

Abstract

The relationship between candidates’ position on a ballot paper and vote rank is explored in the case of London local council elections. A design study uses information visualization techniques to identify patterns and generate hypotheses. Using clustered bar-charts and spatial treemaps, the effects of ballot ordering are shown. Visual evidence is presented to suggest that the order of placement of the names of candidates acts to bias voters towards those whose names are towards the top of the ballot paper. The findings of this research have significant implications for the design of ballot papers and the conduct of fair elections.

Publication Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Publisher Keywords: data visualization, exploratory analysis, local election, political geography
Subjects: Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > Z665 Library Science. Information Science
Departments: School of Science & Technology > Computer Science > giCentre
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