Vote for your choice in the Israeli Elections!
Invitation to a survey at
https://survey.uwyo.edu/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=m6KM9om2I
What do you think will happen in the Israeli Elections?
In the US elections in 2012, not only were US citizens polled over and over about their choices, but it seems that similar polls were conducted around the world. I have not seen many such polls, however, for the Israeli elections.
So here is your chance: Please vote in this survey about your choices for the upcoming Israeli election, on January 22 2013. Vote for or against Netanyahu, Labor, religious or secular or Arab parties, or for one of the small single-issue lists!
Here's the survey link: https://survey.uwyo.edu/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=m6KM9om2I
There is no introduction inside the survey itself. The material below serves as the introduction, and has some guidance for those who want to know more about the Israeli electoral system and parties, and about the Survey. If you are familiar with Israeli elections, you can go straight to the Survey.
On the Israeli elections, system, and parties:
There are many essays about the Israeli elections readily available on line. The Knesset website is the official elections website, with, for example, the complete directory of party lists at http://www.knesset.gov.il/elections19/eng/list/ListIndex_eng.aspx . Everything is available in English, Arabic and Hebrew.
I have written an essay about the elections: http://sethward.posterous.com/israeli-elections. A brief guide to the main party lists on Wikipedia is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_legislative_election,_2013#Participating_parties
Here is a website with a good, short summary of the political positions. http://tin.tv/site/article/%D7%91%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%92/your-guide-to-the-2013-israeli-election
I was surprised at how few websites actually list the main points of each party in a succinct way. Both according to my memory, and to the results of websearchers (such as Google), there seem to have been more “platform” oriented websites for the 2009 elections, and more listings oriented more towards the “politicking” for the current elections. (However interesting this conclusion may be, remember it is an unscientific observation!).
The survey
First, the survey asks for your vote—who you would vote for. Don’t simply “vote for the likely winner”—the survey has a group of questions for that purpose later on.
Second, this survey has some additional voting questions: A “Straw Poll” or beauty contest: if you could vote in direct election of Prime Minister, how would you vote? And, Israel’s government will be formed by a coalition, not a single party, so if you could vote for multiple parties, which would they be? (The survey asks you to pick three). Remember, this is your vote for what you want, not necessarily for who will win!
Third, the survey is interested in your thoughts about what will actually transpire as a result of the vote, with questions about who will likely form a government, the size of the coalition, and its largest members.
There are spaces for brief narrative explanations of your choices, and some demographics at the end.
The tool used to create the survey randomized the list order. This may make the poll slightly more “scientific” although, regrettably, it’s more difficult to find the party list you wish to vote for.
The survey may send you a confirmation after you complete it, and it’s designed to report your choices anonymously to me.
[Update: so far, it's sending the respondent confirmation to ME, not to the survey participant. Although I set it up to be anonymous AND to send YOU an email confirmation, I am not sure it actually has this capacity.]
Background and Reporting
This survey reflects considerations developed in a classroom teaching and exercises in my “Modern Middle East” classes at the University of Wyoming in previous years. In my classes, I offered a small prize for the best prediction, written up as a short essay. I designed this survey in part to allow for machine scoring of a larger number of responses rather than reviewing a relatively small number of classroom essays. Scoring for the predictive part of the responses is based on the number of days before the election the survey was submitted, and the accuracy of predictions for prime minister, largest parties, coalition partners, size of coalition (Knesset mandates), and date of confirmation. Of course, I will also report the results of the actual “voting” section of the survey—I will send the results to anyone interested, and post them on http://sethward.posterous.com.
Unfortunately, no prize is being offered for this survey.
Please complete the survey before the elections. But, note that the survey will technically remain open after January 22, 2013, until the next government is formed (or until mid-March if no government is confirmed).
PLEASE take the survey yourself. PLEASE also circulate the survey as widely as possible, and feel free to post or distribute a link to this page (not to the survey itself, as it has no introduction page): on Facebook or Twitter, to classes, clubs, Hillels, groups, organizations, synagogues churches or other religious or social organizations, etc.
I welcome your thoughts about the survey: sward@uwyo.edu. Or you can post comments on this document at my blog site. (If you are not reading it on my blog website, it 's at http://sethward.posterous.com/vote-for-your-choice-in-the-israeli-elections)
Here’s the survey link again, https://survey.uwyo.edu/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=m6KM9om2I
Many thanks.
Seth Ward
University of Wyoming.