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Tag: Elections

  • Here’s Who Small Businesses Are Voting For, According to Yelp

    Yelp recently released its first annual Small Business Pulse survey finding that most small businesses expect to have a good year in 2016. The company reached out to U.S. 900 small businesses, finding that 85% that are active on Yelp expect revenues to grow.

    You can read more about the findings and check out a related infographic here.

    Yelp is now sharing some additional findings from its survey, this time focusing on who small business owners plan to vote for in the Presidential Election.

    “While growth is always on the mind of small business owners, they are also important members of their local communities,” says Luther Lowe, Yelp’s VP of Public Policy. “In fact, besides the love for their jobs and the flexibility that owning a small business affords them, survey respondents also believe that making a difference in their local communities is a very important part of their success.”

    “With that in mind, we asked these small businesses about the 2016 presidential race to get an early read on their vote, but most importantly, to hear what actions they want to see the next president take,” he adds.

    Hillary Clinton just barely leads in Yelp’s survey at 19% with Donald Trump just behind at 18%. 16% said Bernie Sanders while 7% said Ben Carson, 5% said Marco Rubio, and 5% said Ted Cruz. Yelp notes that Hillary Clinton has a “substantial lead” with women business owners. Trump leads among men. Millennials businesses prefer Bernie Sanders, Yelp says.

    Still, more than 20% of those polled by Yelp are still undecided.

    Yelp says there were two major issues of concern among small business owners that stood out in the survey. 41% believe reducing regulatory burden on small businesses is a priority while 39% are concerned with the complexity of the tax code. 30% cited health care reform as a priority and 25% cited ensuring small businesses have access to capital.

    Yelp also analyzed phone calls made to small businesses on holidays. More on that here.

    Image via Yelp (Flickr)

  • Ashley Swearengin Loses Close California Controller Race

    Fresno, California Mayor Ashley Swearengin lost a close race for California state controller on election day this week. Swearengin, a Republican, received 47.3 percent of the state’s votes, falling short of the 52.7 percent Democrat Betty Yee received.

    In a message posted to her campaign website on Wednesday Swearengin thanked supporters and campaigners. She praised her campaign for the close race and encouraged her supporters to continue pushing for their vision of California. From the message:

    After entering the State Controller’s race late in the process – just days before the close-of-filing – we had a truly remarkable run.

    Along the way, we built steady momentum and gained growing support from volunteers, families, small business owners, and virtually every major newspaper in the state.

    What an incredible surge of energy, activity, and support!

    We were also able to begin to tell the story of success here in Fresno. Yes, good planning and sound policy will produce lasting change. If those principles can work in Fresno, we know they can work across California.

    Of course, we came very close to defeating a 10-year incumbent of a state constitutional office, and that made some “defenders of the status quo” a little nervous. The AFL-CIO ended up spending nearly $1 million to defeat us.

    California’s state controller oversees the state’s finances and serves on dozens of state boards. The position includes administering California’s payroll system and accounting for public funds.

    According to the Fresno Bee Swearengin had campaigned largely on her role in staving off bankruptcy in Fresno. Her campaign loss means that Fresno will not have to hold a special election to determine the city’s new mayor.

    Yee has been a member of the California State Board of Equalization since 2004. The board is responsible for tax administration in California and is the only elected tax commission in the U.S.

    Yee will take the place of current Controller John Chiang, who has served the position’s two-term maximum. Chiang was elected California treasurer this week.

  • Marijuana Legalization Was Facebook’s Most-Discussed Topic on Election Day

    On Election Day, with hotly contested House, Senate, and Gubernatorial races happening all over the country, social media chatter was turned up to 11. According to Facebook, Tuesday’s midterm elections saw 85 million interactions (posts, likes, and comments) from 27 million people. Some of that conversation can be attributed to Facebook’s “I’m a Voter” prompt that had people sharing their voting status with their friends – but even with that, the amount of organic discussion is impressive.

    Facebook says that some of the most talked-about topics of the day were taxes, Obamacare, education, and voter fraud – all of which make sense considering that they were made integral parts of various campaigns (especially the first two).

    But in terms of top conversations, the aforementioned topics are numbers two through five. The big winner of the day, in terms of total buzz, was pot.

    Facebook says that marijuana was the most talked-about topic throughout the entirety of Election Day.

    Pot was indeed on the ballot – and in a big way. Statewide ballot measures in four areas – Alaska, Florida, Oregon, and Washington DC – dominated the conversation all day.

    Proponent of marijuana legalization had a pretty solid day, scoring victories in three of the four major battles.

    In Alaska Ballot Measure 2, an initiative to legalize and regulate marijuana for those 21 and older passed with 52 percent of the vote. In Oregon Measure 91, a similar measure, won big – 55 percent to 45 percent.

    Post by Marijuana Policy Project.

    And in our nation’s capital a legalization initiative sponsored by the DC Cannabis Campaign won huge, with a final tally of 65 percent to 28 percent in favor.

    “The people of the District of Columbia have voted in favor of ending racially biased marijuana prohibition,” said Dr. Malik Burnett, the Vice Chair of the DC Cannabis Campaign. “The harms caused by the war on drugs are not fixed with this vote alone; the real healing begins when the DC Council develops a tax-and-regulate system based on racial and social justice.”

    The only loss on the day was in Florida, where a constitutional amendment to allow medical marijuana failed with 58 percent of the vote. In Florida, amendments put to the ballot require 60 percent to succeed.

    Political races be damned – election Tuesday was marijuana’s day … at least on Facebook.

    Image via DCMJ, Facebook

  • Where Do I Vote? Google’s Election Day Doodle Answers That Question With Polling Place Lookup Box

    You may be wondering, “Where do I vote?” Google knows this question is on many people’s minds across the United States today as the midterm elections are underway.

    Google is taking the opportunity to turn its homepage into a tool for would be voters, who may not know exactly where they need to go. Rather than making the doodle take you to search results for “Election Day,” which is a format Google often employs for holiday doodles, it takes you to a query for “Where do I vote?”

    That query doesn’t just bring up a classic search results page with ten blue links (fewer and fewer queries do these days as it is). Instead, Google gives you a search box right at the top for a “Polling Place Lookup,” which lets you enter your address and find the proper venue.

    Strangely, if you simply search for “polling place lookup,” Google doesn’t deliver this box, but lists a page from vote411.org. This is presumably the website Google would have traditionally taken users to before it decided it had to start injecting its own services and answers into as many search results as possible.

    In fact, for the “Where do I vote?” query, Google lists a handful of local results after the search box, followed by several “in the news” results. Then, the vote44.org result appears.

    Site owners are often distressed when they see Google placing its own stuff in the search results rather than sending them the traffic, but in this case, provided its supplying accurate information to users (it did for me), it’s probably fine. People need to know where to vote, and if Google can get them that info faster, then that sounds good to me.

    Images via Google

  • Twitter Launches 2014 Elections Hub with Curated Tweets and Data

    As Twitter has done in the past with big events (both national and global), it has just launched a new activity hub for the 2014 elections.

    And while some of its past attempts to organize conversation around certain events (for instance the World Cup) merely provided a place to browse relevant tweets and accounts, the new #Election2014 site is more like a dashboard that lets users explore not only relevant tweets – but insights as well.

    Over at election.twitter.com you’ll find data “pulled from a curated list of relevant hashtags, @usernames and other related keywords.” You can look at the gender and age breakdown of politically-themed tweets, a list of the top issues, the latest news from Twitter and a handful of news partners (like USA Today, MSNBC, and Bloomberg), and a constantly-updating stream of relevant tweets.

    But the most useful aspect of Twitter’s new elections hub is the ability to break everything down by state and look at the specific gubernatorial and senatorial races happening in specific localities.

    All of the data insights update every 24 hours.

    “We’ve already observed several themes by exploring this data: the conversation about the Ebola virus ebbs and flows from state to state as local angles emerge; the topic of law enforcement over-indexes in Missouri related to #Ferguson; and President Obama is the principal driver around election talk, even without appearing on any ballots,” says Twitter’s Head of News, Government, and Elections Adam Sharp.

    The time is approaching. The 2014 elections are next Tuesday, November 4th.

  • Obama Approval Rating Doesn’t Do Democrat Candidates Any Favors

    A recent Rasmussen poll shows President Barack Obama’s approval rating numbers leave a lot to be desired. The numbers from the Rasmussen Daily Tracking poll as of August 27 are:

    Strongly Approve: 21%
    Strongly Disapprove: 41%
    Total Approve: 46%
    Total Disapprove: 53%

    If you follow that link above and scan down the daily numbers, you will see that Obama’s approval numbers have remained relatively unchanged for months.

    Since he is not up for election again, what difference could his approval numbers possibly make to anyone now?

    For starters, any time there is an election, the party that is not currently in the White House seeks to tie their opponents in some way to the sitting president. This is especially true if is approval numbers are poor. But even if he is a popular president, that tactic can at least be used to fire up their own base.

    This is holding true again in the mid-term election battle in Kentucky, where Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is fighting once again to hold on to his seat, this time against Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes. McConnell’s ads often seek to paint Grimes as “Obama’s candidate”.

    Kentucky is a curious mixture in politics. They have long had Democratic governors, but have not voted blue in a presidential race since Bill Clinton, whom they went for both times.

    A recent Real Clear Politics article explains how the numbers of the races rely heavily on the president’s approval ratings, even in the president us not up for reelection.

    “[I]n the 31 competitive Senate races held in 2010 and 2012, the Democratic candidate has run within five points of the president’s job approval in 23 of them (75 percent),” wrote Sean Trende. “Additionally, no Democratic candidate in a competitive race has run more than 10 points ahead of the president’s job approval (or behind it).”

  • Angela Merkel Regrets Rise of Populism in EU

    On Sunday, 21 of the 28 member-states of the European Union held votes for seats in the European Parliament, a vote which occurs every five years. The European Parliament is effectively the legislative body of the European Union and is second largest democratically-elected electorate in the world behind India’s Parliament. As such, these elections are one of the most important elections held on the globe.

    Despite that fact, voter apathy still held, with less than 50 percent of people showing up at the polls. Of those that did turn out to vote, however, there was a strong message sent to the establishment parties of Europe.

    By the time polls closed on Sunday, it was evident that the leading powers of the European Union have suffered much over the past five years due to economic crises and international tensions, with many far-right and fringe parties rising to unseen prominence.

    In Germany, Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc remained victorious, bringing in 35.5 percent of the total vote. That total represented the lowest percentage since votes for the European Parliament began in 1979, however.

    The slack was picked up from two surprising sources – the newly-minted Eurosceptic party, Alternative for Germany, and the far-right, neo-Nazi National Democratic Party.

    Alternative for Germany, abbreviated AfD, is barely one year old but making great headway in the German political scene. The party is not anti-EU, but rather anti-euro due to its exacerbation of non-competitive and inegalitarian economic policies. It is calling for the secession of southern European states from the eurozone.

    In this election, AfD garnered 7 percent of the vote, resulting in 7 seats in the European Parliament.

    In response to the 7 percent gain from the AfD and the 1 percent total from the National Democratic Party, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel had a somber message:

    “It’s quite remarkable and regrettable but now the point is to win those voters back… A course directed toward competitiveness, growth, and jobs is the best response to those who are disappointed and have now voted the way we all didn’t want.”

    Merkel’s comments have more impact when considered with a wider scope. While the far-right parties did not make a huge splash in the German political landscape, their gaining-strength was displayed in both France and the United Kingdom.

    In France, far-right, anti-immigration National Front party won a majority of the votes, coming in at 26 percent. Even more shockingly, the current-ruling Socialist party came in third, with only 14 percent of the vote.

    In the United Kingdom, the U.K. Independence Party, or UKIP, won 27 percent of the vote compared to 18 percent for David Cameron’s conservative party. The UKIP takes a hard-lined stance on its view toward the EU, with its leader, Nigel Farage, stating, “I don’t just want Britain to leave the European Union, I want Europe to leave the European Union.”

    While Germany and Merkel may have not experienced the worst of the social upheaval at this year’s polls, her plan seems to be the right place to start. All of the far-right and fringe parties seemed to be gaining support through their opposition to the euro, a currency many people seem to blame for the current economic crisis in Europe.

    If Germany and other countries want to cement their center-right political stranglehold and prevent the destruction of the EU, job growth and economic stability are the keys.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Romney Shows Up At Sundance Premiere For Netflix’s ‘Mitt’

    Mitt, the Netflix documentary following former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, premiered at Sundance over the weekend, and Romney himself made a surprise appearance.

    “The ending I probably won’t like, but nonetheless, I think it will be a good experience and probably give my family and others a chance to see what it’s like to run for president, which by the way is one of life’s most extraordinary experiences,” Romney told reporters ahead of the premiere.

    Of documentarian Greg Whitely, Romney said, “He said, you know, even if we never make a movie of this, it will be a wonderful journey to keep for your family of what your presidential campaign was like.”

    For MItt, Whitely followed Romney around for six years with exclusive access, and the results are what appear in the film. Whitely maintains that there is no political agenda, but rather that Mitt is meant to be an honest look at a presidential campaign.

    The film premieres on Netflix on Friday.

  • Director Of Netflix’s ‘Mitt’ Amazed At How ‘Cheap’ Romney Is

    While The Square is getting a lot of publicity this week for its Oscar nomination, another Netflix original documentary will debut next week on the 24th.

    Mitt follows the six years that filmmaker Greg Whitely had exclusive access to former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Here’s the trailer Netflix put out last month:

    Reuters has put out an interview with Whitely who talked a bit about the film. He told the news agency that he was surprised that somebody as rich as Romney “would be that cheap,” recalling when the candidate expressed his shock at the price of a glass of milk at a hotel. “He was constantly agonizing over how much for a (campaign advertising) spot,” Whitely’s quoted as saying. “He would look at the hotel bill and just go crazy, and say, ‘I’ll just go buy my own milk at the grocery store at a third of the cost.’”

    He went on to say of the Romney family, “They’re clean-cut people who are polite and gracious, but I think it’s impossible to go through that without developing a degree of cynicism. I think it’s a tribute to them that they remained pretty bright-eyed.”

    The film will premiere at Sundance, and Whitely hopes the Netflix release will be able to “piggy-back on all the great PR and buzz and momentum” from that, though Netflix tends to generate PR and buzz pretty well on its own.

    The filmmaker maintains that the movie does not employ a political agenda, but rather is simply about a family and the father of the family running for president. Viewers will certainly make up their own minds about that. Either way, Netflix will likely generate plenty of interest in this one.

    Image via YouTube

  • Bharatiya Janata Party Wins Big in India Elections

    Yesterday, the ruling Congress Party in India was dealt a huge blow by losing four state elections in India. The more-liberal Congress Party, which has been the primary ruling power in India since its independence in 1947, lost handily to the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party). The BJP is an emerging conservative party, with a Hindu-nationalist, self-sufficient platform, which offers an alternative to the liberal social ideologies of the Congress Party.

    The BJP was able to maintain its power and influence in the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states, but surprised Indian political pundits with their victories in the western Rajasthan state and Delhi, India’s capital. In Rajasthan, the BJP won 162 of the 200 seats, with Congress only winning 21.

    However, the biggest surprise came with the elections in Delhi. The Congress Party had been the ruling political power in Delhi for the past 15 years. Sunday, however, they lost control of the nation’s capital, winning only 8 of the 70 seats. The BJP party came out as the winning party in Delhi with a total of 31 seats. The surprise, however, was the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party, or Common Man’s Party, which won an unprecedented 28 seats.

    The almost-victory of the AAP comes as such a surprise because the party was founded just one year ago. The AAP was born out of the recent unrest in India due to severe political corruption, surging food prices, and a stagnant economy. “Our democracy has been subservient to political parties governed by caste, religion, money power, muscle power and corruption for too long. People were exhausted with this kind of politics and decided to contest elections themselves,” stated Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the AAP who defeated Sheila Dikshit, the reigning three-term chief minister and representative of the Congress Party in Delhi.

    The election results comes as a huge blow to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has dominated Indian politics for nearly 70 years. Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of the Congress Party, has conceded the importance of such a vote: “We have to look into the way we took or did not take our message to the people… people are obviously unhappy, otherwise they would not have given such results.” Her current Vice President of India and heir-apparent to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, Rahul Gandhi, has also voiced lessons learned from the trouncing handed to the Congress Party by the BJP: What we need to do as a party is to move ahead of just talking about good governance and move to a paradigm, to a place, where we are actually giving serious space to the common man. I am going to put all my efforts into transforming the organization of the Congress Party.”

    While many political pundits are discussing the impact these state elections will have on the future of Indian governance, research from a Bank of America Merrill Lynch report shows that correlation between state and national elections in India is weak. The report states several reasons as to why the victories of the BJP may not translate to national victories next year. First and foremost, the four states in which the BJP won only represent 13% of the national vote. Secondly, much like elections here in the United States, these state elections are only indications of where the people stand, not firm-indicators of party-allegiance. When national elections roll around next year, people will still vote for individual candidates. Last, the success of the AAP demonstrates that regional parties will still be very influential, meaning coalition governance will still be prevalent despite the successes of the BJP.

    If the Congress Party wants to maintain its control over Indian politics, it only has until 4 months to turn its fortunes around as general elections for the Lok Sabha take place in April.

    [Image via Twitter]

  • The Next Election May Be Funded By Bitcoin

    The Next Election May Be Funded By Bitcoin

    Bitcoin is the currency of the future, or at least that’s what crypt-anarchists and futurist would have you believe. On the other hand, the government seems like it doesn’t know what to do with the digital currency. Well, at least most of the government that is.

    The Hill reports that the Federal Election Commission has proposed that election campaigns be allowed to accept bitcoin donations. The proposal was made after the Commission received a request to use bitcoins in elections from the Conservative Action Fund.

    While this is great news for bitcoin proponents, the FEC does have one caveat for the currency’s usage. Under its proposal, campaigns will be able to accept bitcoin donations, but they won’t be able to spend them. Instead, campaigns will have to sell the bitcoins and then deposit the money into their accounts. Since bitcoin transactions are anonymous, you can see why the Commission would want to prevent campaigns from being able to use the currency.

    While the decision is sure to receive some criticism from those opposed to the untraceable currency, other lawmakers see it as a first step towards the government embracing new currencies. Sen. Tom Carper said that he “applaud[s] the FEC for acting quickly to recognize [bitcoin] and develop a thoughtful policy that gives donors and committees rules of the road to utilize this emerging technology.”

    The next major election, set to take place in 2014, is likely to be the first time that bitcoins will be used extensively in elections. It remains to be seen what impact the digital currency will have on campaign finances, but it will prove interesting. After all, donors could send bitcoin donations to campaigns anonymously, especially with the emergence of technologies like Dark Wallet. While we’ll know how much the campaign received thanks to FEC rules, we won’t know who sent the money. That alone is likely to ruffle the feathers of those seeking campaign finance reform even more.

    [Image: weusecoins/YouTube]

  • Televised Presidential Debates Do Matter, Shows Study

    Ever since John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon appeared in a televised debate in 1960, TV debates have been powerful moments in U.S. presidential campaigns. In recent years, however, the purpose and influence of presidential debates has come into question as the events have become ever more staged.

    This week, a new study has shown that such debates are still powerful influencers of political opinion during campaigns.

    The study, published recently in the journal Communications Studies, found that debates do not significantly influence those who have already chosen a candidate to vote for. However, the debates were also seen to push undecided voters toward one candidate or the other.

    “Viewing debates significantly increased polarization among those who go into the debate with very little candidate preference or attitude and have no strong opinions either way,” said Ben Warner, co-author of the study and a communications professor at the University of Missouri. “The good thing is we feel that moderates make up the group of voters that needs to shift toward one candidate or another.”

    The study looked at potential voters who watched the presidential debates in the past four presidential elections, as well as the vice presidential debates in the previous two elections. Undecided voters were found to have the greatest change in opinion following the debates, often leaning toward one candidate. This trend was seen across voters’ personal traits measured in the study, and Warner observed that even the shift in media consumption seen in the past decade didn’t change the outcome.

    “Despite the white noise of social networks and media, debates truly do make a difference because they are the single biggest electoral event with the largest audience. Because both sides have equal time to make their cases, debates are the most balanced message voters receive over the course of a campaign,” Warner said. “If debates move more moderates into the conversation and help get them more engaged in the political process that’s a positive thing because it dilutes the vitriol usually associated with the electoral conversation.”

    (Image courtesy Newsinc)

  • Chris Christie Easily Wins Reelection in New Jersey

    Republican governor Chris Christie won reelection last night, beating his opponent by getting a whopping 60 percent of the vote. State senator Barbara Buono only managed to garner 39 percent of the vote. While the election victory doesn’t come as much of a surprise, the landslide victory has put Christie one step closer to a 2016 presidential run.

    Check out a breakdown of the vote for governor below. With the exception of the minority vote, Christie won the other categories by a landslide.

    (image)

    At the election night party, Christie addressed his supporters with “Hey, hey, hey, how ‘bout this, New Jersey?” After calling himself “the luckiest guy in the world,” Christie talked about the importance of bipartisanship, something many people have praised the Republican for and something that may give him an edge over other Republican contenders should he decide to run for president.

    “We stand here tonight to show that it is possible to put doing your job first, to put working together first, to fight for what you believe in yet still stand by your principles and get something done for the people who elected you,” Christie said.

    Christie’s opponent was clearly stung by the lack of support she received from New Jersey Democrats. Buono took New Jersey Democratic leaders to task during her speech and said that they betrayed her campaign.

    “The Democrat political bosses–some elected, some not, made a deal with this governor, despite him representing everything they’re supposed to be against,” she said. “They didn’t do it to help the state. They did it out of a desire to help themselves politically and financially.”

    Will Christie run for president?

    “I am not going to declare tonight…that I am or I’m not running for president,” Christie said in early October when asked about whether he was eyeing a 2016 White House bid. “I won’t make those decisions until I have to.”

    During his victory speech, the Republican made a comment that many believe is a hint that the decision to run for president has already been made. “If we can do this in Trenton, New Jersey, maybe the folks in Washington, D.C. should tune in their TVs right now,” Christie told his supporters.

    Considering the plagiarism woes another Republican favorite, Kentucky senator Rand Paul, is now facing, Christie could very well win the Republican nomination when the time comes.

    Who do you think will secure the Republican nomination in 2016? Respond below.

    [Images via Instagram and CBS]

  • Tony Abbott PM-elect party wins Australian elections

    Australians learned election results Saturday and it was an overwhelming victory for the conservative opposition party. Early Sunday reports indicated the coalition would win a clear majority of 88 out of the 150 House of Representative seats. Labor would probably win 57. Projections in the Senate are less positive for the Liberal party.

    The win for the Tony Abbott-led opposition cuts off what many consider six years of stormy Labor Party rule—marked by infighting and a troubled economy. Prime Minister-elect Abbott declared the nation, “under new management.”

    This election comes only three months after Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, was ousted by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Rudd conceded defeat Saturday: “I telephoned Tony Abbott to concede defeat at these national elections. As prime minister of Australia I wish him well now in the high office of prime minister of this country.” Rudd and his wife also wished Abbott’s family well with forthcoming stresses of the office, saying, “We know a little bit of what that is like.” Rudd also announced plans to step down as Labor leader.

    Campaign platforms and issues include the economy—unemployment and foreign aid being key topics—Indonesian asylum seekers sailing into Aussie waters and climate change; on the latter, Abbott is announcing his first action will be repealing an unpopular tax on Australia’s biggest polluters, which he ties to increasing power bills among citizens.

    Abbott’s campaign made frequent use of social media, keeping Facebook and Twitter accounts up-to-date, and at times humorous…

    So what does this say for negative press about Abbott’s popularity? Pre-election press was full of dismal reports about the 55-year-old’s popularity, labeling him as “polarizing.” Abbott seems to be catapulting into the Prime Minister’s seat from improved reactions just this week. He held a confident lead in opinion polls before Australians came out to vote though he only passed Rudd this week. Polling in July by Sydney-based Newspoll had Rudd in the lead 50% to 34%.

    In fun and actually related news, Google fashioned an election-day doodle for the Australian elections this week, demonstrating the process by which a ballot gets to the polling box.

    (image)

    [Image from Tony Abbott Official Facebook and Doodle Collect.]

  • Ghana: President Mahama’s 2012 Victory Confirmed

    “I’d always known that I was legitimately elected, and I knew that eventually justice will be served,” newly confirmed President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama said in a Friday interview. On Thursday, the Ghanaian Supreme Court upheld Mahama’s victory from elections in 2012. Mahama declared the ruling and preceding debate a democratic test that Ghana passed. “The people of Ghana… They’ve sent a message to the world that this country is stable politically and has matured in its democracy…”

    Mahama’s opponent Nana Akufo-Addo, captured 47.7% of the votes in the elections held last December; Mahama gained 50.7%. Akufo-Addo called Mahama on Thursday to congratulate the victor. The court proceedings were broadcast live on radio and TV, and while tense at times, the court verdict was received peacefully in the country, mirroring the original elections.

    Mahama was inaugurated in January of this year but originally took office after President John Atta Mills died of throat cancer in July 2012. He hosts an “Ask Mahama” Facebook page and website in addition to an active Twitter account, which featured philosophic musings last December 31st in the face of election uncertainty.

    Ghana has been the recipient of overflow from fighting in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire. A 2010 election crisis in the regularly turbulent nation resulted in the flight of refugees and officials loyal to now-ousted Ivoirian President Laurent Gbagbo. Several former Gbagbo supporters have been arrested in Ghana in 2013. One later extradited at the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was Charles Ble Goude, a former leader of a militant youth movement that favored Gbagbo.

    Ghanaian courts on Friday however rejected the request from Côte d’Ivoire to extradite a key Gbagbo ally, Justin Kone Katinan. Judges declared Katinan to have refugee status and determined the Ivoirian request to be politically motivated. Katinan continues to declare Gbagbo, who was arrested in April 2011 and sent to the ICC, the legitimate president. Katinan is accused of robbing banks in the elections’ aftermath. He argues the banks were legitimately opened by Gbagbo to pay civil servants. It was a French order that closed the banks. The French, supporting Gbagbo’s opponent Alassane Ouattara, sent troops to join UN forces that toppled Gbagbo’s regime.

    Gbagbo’s refusal to cede power and subsequent removal after November 2010 elections sparked a violent conflict, resulting in the death of around 3,000 people. Some have accused Mahama’s political party of being affiliated with Gbagbo’s but Mahama has responded with a promise to cease any chaos driven by Ivory Coast turmoil.

    Ghanaian exports include gold, cocoa and oil as of 2010. This new oil revenue has expanded the economy but poor government management caused mass deficits. Mahama vowed to recover the economy. Over the course of the last few years, Africa has experienced a mass inflow of Chinese citizens looking to make grand profits off the struggling continent’s natural resources. Ghana is no exception, and last June security forces were sent to arrest Chinese gold miners who had illegally staked out claims in collaboration with Ghanaian citizens. Mahama assures that relations with China, an important trading partner, have not been damaged: “my Chinese counterparts… understand the problems that illegal gold mining is causing for Ghana.”

    [Images via CIA World Factbook and Twitter.]

  • Hasan Rowhani To Replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad As Iran’s President

    Hasan Rowhani has won his election bid and will replace Mahmoud Amadinejad as president of Iran. Rowhani, a cleric backed by reformist groups within Iran, won the election with over 50% of the popular vote, thus precluding a two-man runoff, according to Iran’s Interior Ministry.

    Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current president of Iran, has been a profoundly controversial figure during his two terms in office. Public statements denying the Holocaust, claiming a total absence of homosexuals in Iran, demanding that Israel be “pushed into the sea” and more have drawn intense criticism from many outside Iran. His re-election to a second term in 2009 led to massive riots throughout Iran. Many believed that the election had been rigged in Ahmadinejad’s favor. Angry Iranians took to the streets of Tehran in protest.

    Ahmadinejad was legally prohibited from seeking a third term, leaving the field wide open for other candidates. Rowhani, who earned the support of pro-reform groups within Iran, won by a wide margin, handily defeating his opponents, all of whom were hard-liners.

    While the election of a pro-reform candidate to the presidency may seem to western observers to be a major breakthrough for the people of Iran, the reality is rather different. First and foremost, Iran is actually governed by a ruling council and the Revolutionary Guard, who share power over the country. Second, while Rowhani technically had the support of reformist groups, he really only gained it by default. Of all the candidates who were allowed to run by the ruling council, he was the most moderate. The rest were hardliners.

    In other words, don’t expect Rowhani’s election to make a huge difference in the state of affairs in Iran. Nevertheless, his victory does offer pro-reform groups the chance to regain some of the ground they’ve lost in recent years.

    While precise numbers are not available, reports say that roughly 36 million of Iran’s 50 million eligible voters – 72% – turned out for the election, forcing a five hour extension on poll closing times. By contrast, the voter turnout for the 2012 U.S. presidential election was 57.5%.

  • Here’s What Yahoo Is Doing For Election-Related Searches

    Yahoo put out a blog post outlining the various things it is doing with its search results for election-related queries.

    If you search “2012 Presidential Polls,” Yahoo will show you the latest national poll numbers at any given time:

    Yahoo Election Polls

    If you search for “swing state polls” specifically, you can see how the swing states are trending at that moment. You can also search for state senate races and see related polls (for example: “Kentucky Senate Race 2012”).

    “You’ll also be able to get details on key propositions, issues, and referenda using the Propositions Direct Display,” Yahoo explains. “Search for the state proposition number.” For example, you could search for “Colorado Amendment 64”. and see information about that.

    Users can also get results for all of the races as they come in, by searching for your state’s specific races. “For instance, you can search for your state’s local U.S. House of Representatives results by searching for [New York U.S. House Results] and get results in real-time,” says Yahoo.

    Currently, the Yahoo homepage is showing “The Obama Message,” “The Romney Message,” the “Election Control Room,” a Flickr Election 2012 photo gallery, and a link to polls with closing times.

  • Sergey Brin To Election Victors: Withdraw From Your Parties, Become Independent

    Google co-founder Sergey Brin had some thoughts about today’s presidential election, and shared them on Google+ last night. Here’s what he had to say:

    Sergey Brin

    Sergey Brin6 hours ago

    I must confess, I am dreading today's elections.
    Not because of who might win or lose.
    Not because as a Californian, my vote for President will count 1/3 as much as an Alaskan (actually it won't matter at all — I'm not in a swing state).
    Not because my vote for Senate will count 1/50 as much as an Alaskan.

    But because no matter what the outcome, our government will still be a giant bonfire of partisanship.  It is ironic since whenever I have met with our elected officials they are invariably thoughtful, well-meaning people.  And yet collectively 90% of their effort seems to be focused on how to stick it to the other party.

    So my plea to the victors — whoever they might be: please withdraw from your respective parties and govern as independents in name and in spirit.  It is probably the biggest contribution you can make to the country.

    [If you agree, pass it on to your newly elected officials.] 3021    398 Powered by socialditto

    Brin received a substantial amount of feedback from people on Google’s social network, with thousands of +1s, and hundreds of shares and comments.

  • “Where Do I Vote” Is Today’s Google Doodle Topic In The U.S.

    Google is running an Election Day doodle in the U.S. today, as the nation works on electing its president for the next four years. The doodle this time does not take us to “Election Day” results, however. It takes us to results for “Where do I vote,” which provides a built in tool on the search results page for users to find their specific polling place based on their address. More on the tool itself here.

    There is also a link on the homepage itself, which takes you to Google’s Elections site.

    On the results page, the first organic (non-Google) result (at least for this writer) is canivote.org, which is maintained by the National Association of Secretaries of State (described as the “nation’s oldest, nonpartisan professional association for public officials”). Its members are the chief state election officials in 39 states, but the site is actually hosted by Kansas.gov.

    The second result I see is for a Louisville KY voting site from the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office. This is presumably targeted to me because I’m in Kentucky, but since I live closer to Lexington (which would still not be helpful to me since I live in a different town), the result is pretty much useless. After that it’s a polling place finder for Minnesota. Then Massachusetts, Michigan and Idaho related pages.

    To make a long story short, without Google’s own tool, and possibly the first initial result, the organic results are simply not very good for the user. This makes Google’s own tool, which is the top non-paid result, the best result (out of the ones that are actually displayed). There is room for debate as to whether or not there are other choices on the web that are as good or better than Google’s tool.

    Either way, this is an example of where Google can improve the user experience by simply providing its own service – a big topic fo discussion in the search world.

  • The Electoral College Explained (In TED Video)

    TED has put out a new video explaining the Electoral College, for those of you who would like to see how it works. It’s not a usual TED Talk-style video, but rather a five-minute animated clip with a voice over by Christina Greer.

    “Discover how your individual vote contributes to the popular vote and your state’s electoral vote in different ways–and see how votes are counted on both state and national levels,” the TED Education YouTube channel explains.

    The animation was done by Marked Animation.

  • Psychos Are Keeping Jimmy Wales From Voting

    Someone on Quora recently asked who Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales would be voting for in the upcoming election. His answer may surprise you. He won’t be voting.

    That’s not because he doesn’t care about voting, mind you. It’s not because he has no vested interest in who the President of the United States is. He simply doesn’t want to register to vote because of “scary stalkers”.

    Here is the response he posted to Quora:

    Read Quote of Jimmy Wales’s answer to Jimmy Wales: For whom will Jimmy Wales be voting in two weeks? on Quora

    In a separate thread in which someone asked who he would be voting for in two weeks had he been willing to register to vote, he posted:

    Read Quote of Jimmy Wales’s answer to Jimmy Wales: Whom would Jimmy Wales be voting for in two weeks had he been willing to register to vote? on Quora