How did New Zealand get proportional representation?Prior to 1996, MPs were elected to New Zealand’s House of Representatives using the same unrepresentative First Past The Post (FPTP) system that is used to elect MPs to the UK’s House of Commons. Since...Posted 02 Aug 2022
Why England needs the Single Transferable VoteIn May 2022, local elections will take place throughout Scotland and Wales, as well as in many parts of England, including the election of all local councillors in Greater London. In Scotland, these will be...Posted 07 Apr 2022
How do Westminster election results compare to those of devolved institutions?This May, the sixth set of elections took place for each of the devolved institutions in the nations of Britain – the Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament) and the London Assembly. It was a...Posted 20 Aug 2021
How close was Trump to winning the election?Just before the 2020 US Presidential election, we asked the question ‘could Trump win the Presidency and lose the popular vote again’? Now that results from every state have been certified and the Electoral College...Posted 05 Jan 2021
Could Trump win the Presidency and lose the popular vote again?There have been two ‘wrong winners’ in UK general elections over the last 70 years. In 1951, Labour got more votes than the Conservatives but the Tories won more seats. In February 1974, the position...Posted 30 Oct 2020
Fairer results and real representation: 20 years of PR on the London AssemblyThis week marks 20 years since AMS was first used to elect the London Assembly. How has it fared?Posted 04 May 2020
We should be scrutinising candidates and policies. Instead the talk is of tactics and pactsJudging by the first week of the general election campaign, it seems likely that the remaining month will see a lot of focus on ‘tactical’ issues. We’ve already seen electoral pacts, or parties standing down...Posted 13 Nov 2019
A tale of two local by-elections: how STV produces fairer outcomesOn Thursday 3rd October, as on most Thursdays, several local authority by-elections took place throughout Britain. These by-elections occur when a vacancy arises due to a local councillor resigning or passing away. Two of Thursday’s...Posted 04 Oct 2019
Voters are going beyond left-right divides – and the system can’t handle itDuring the first half of 2019, party affiliation among the British electorate became more fragmented and volatile than ever before. In the English local elections on 2 May the Liberal Democrats and Greens – as...Posted 17 Jul 2019
England’s 2019 local elections – The places where around half of voters go unrepresentedOn 2 May, thousands of people were elected to serve as councillors in local authorities across England. While a lot of attention has been given to the overall performances of political parties and independent candidates, little scrutiny...Posted 13 May 2019