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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: December 18, 2015
Tara La Bouff
Communications Manager
404.894.7253
Summary Sentence:
Software by Georgia Tech students and faculty assisted with the Argentinian run-off election earlier this fall.
Full Summary:
Members of the College of Computing and Sam Nunn School of International Affairs traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina last month to monitor the presidential runoff election using a software platform by Georgia Tech and an application by Pol-IT, a non-governmental organization.
Ellen Zegura compressed
Aggie in ArgentinaMembers of the College of Computing and Sam Nunn School of International Affairs traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina last month to monitor the presidential runoff election using a software platform by Georgia Tech and an application by Pol-IT, a non-governmental organization.
Traveling to Argentina were Georgia Tech students Trey Washington (CS), Paul Wilson (CompE) and Amanda Meng (INTA). The group was advised by Professor Ellen Zegura (CS) and Associate Professor Michael Best (IC – INTA), who also is director of the United Nations University Institute on Computing & Society.
Georgia Tech students brought “Aggie” – a social media tracking software first created in 2011 – which can be used to search for keywords in social media feeds and identify trends around voting logistics, violence or possible election irregularities. For example, during a previous test in Ghana, trending social media reports from Aggie revealed chaos and a halt to voting at a particular polling place, the apparent result of misunderstanding as people jumped the vote queue. In Argentina, Aggie was used during the runoff debates prior to election day and again on November 22.
Meanwhile, Pol-IT brought its app – used in Argentina under the name "Ojo con el Voto" (Eye on the Vote). It allowed citizens to provide feedback about their voting experience. Once downloaded from Google Play, the voter selected where he or she voted and answered five brief questions to record the experience at the polls. Pol-IT partnered with Poder Ciudadano, which will prepare a final report to be submitted to Argentina’s National Electoral Chamber.
“We are just starting to analyze the data, but an immediate surprising result is that the most common age demographic for app users was 50-59,” Zegura said, adding that 29 percent of respondents were in this age range. “The next most common was 40-49 with 23.2 percent of respondents. This substantially counters the conventional wisdom that younger people lead in technology use. We hope to learn more via interviews, but one hypothesis is that older voters have more history with elections and may have more at stake as they approach retirement.”
According to Poder Ciudadano, 43 percent of the app users said they had some type of problem at the polls – the most common complaint being a lack of ballots.
