Examination of effect of free bus service in election using computer simulation

In this paper, we examine the effect of the free bus service in an election using computer simulation. In our previous study, we have considered our multi-agent simulation model for polling place optimization problems. In our polling place optimization problems, two objectives are considered to be optimized: maximization of voter turnout and minimization of the number of polling places. Using an Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization (EMO) algorithm, we found the polling place assignment to increase the voter turnouts and reduce the number of the polling places while keeping the actual rates of voter turnouts. However we found that elderly voters must go to farther polling places than in the past when the number of polling places is reduced. Therefore we propose a introduction of a free bus service for elderly voters to reduce the cost that they go to their polling place. According to actual locations of bus stops in a local city, Japan, we calculate the reduction rate of voters' distance to their polling place using a free bus service and examine the effect of voter turnout.