Brazilian elections: voting for a scaling democracy

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the statistical patterns of Brazilian elections in 1998 and 2002, revealing a power-law distribution in votes that suggests a multiplicative process influences voter behavior.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that voter choice follows a multiplicative probabilistic process, explaining the observed scaling invariance in election data.

Findings

Vote distributions follow a power-law pattern.

Scaling invariance persists across different election years.

Voter choice modeled as a multiplicative process.

Abstract

The proportional elections held in Brazil in 1998 and 2002 display identical statistical signatures. In particular, the distribution of votes among candidates includes a power-law regimen. We suggest that the rationale behind this robust scaling invariance is a multiplicative process in which the voter's choice for a candidate is governed by a product of probabilities.