Voters will be turned away at the general election for lacking the right IDThursday 4th July 2024 will be a historic General Election for all the wrong reasons. For the first time, voters in Scotland and some parts of England will be turned away from polling stations, as...Posted 01 Jul 2024
Over one million people at risk of not having voter ID on election dayNew figures show that there have been only 57,000 new applications for Voter Authority Certificates (VACs) meaning over a million voters risk not having an accepted form of ID on July 4th. Voting is a fundamental...Posted 01 Jul 2024
ERS in the Press – Coverage we’ve secured in the GE campaignYou might have noticed that there’s a general election approaching. Whilst the date of the election may have taken us all a little by surprise, the ERS communications team were ready to go and making...Posted 25 Jun 2024
Candidate selections reflect the barriers for women in politicsLast week, all UK political parties confirmed which candidates they were standing in each constituency for the 2024 general election. Including independents, a total of 4,515 candidates will be fighting for a seat in the...Posted 20 Jun 2024
New polling finds three quarters of public say politics needs to improve significantlyLast week we had extremely concerning news about the state of our democracy. A significant study by the National Centre for Social Research found more people ‘than ever before’ ‘almost never’ trust the British government...Posted 20 Jun 2024
Manifestos outside the big two parties: Putting democracy on the agendaLast week we looked at the sections of the Labour and Conservative manifestos that touched on democracy-related issues. This week, we turn our attention to the other parties that are standing candidates in virtually all...Posted 19 Jun 2024
What does a super-majority mean and is it something we should worry about?In the last week, the current defence secretary, Grant Shapps, has been appearing in the news to warn about the supposed dangers of a Labour ‘super-majority’. He told Times Radio “You don’t want to have...Posted 18 Jun 2024
Labour manifesto: Encouraging first steps – but we need to address rock bottom trust in politicsThis week we had startling and deeply concerning news about the state of our democracy. A study from the National Centre for Social Research concluded that: ‘All in all, it appears that people’s trust in...Posted 13 Jun 2024
Conservative manifesto: Missing pledges to improve our democracyThe launch of the Conservative manifesto yesterday was conspicuously light on democratic policy with little mention by way of reforms desperately needed to strengthen our democracy. Voter ID Policy The Conservatives made only one proposal...Posted 13 Jun 2024
Digital imprints: what are they and why are they useful?This general election will be the biggest we’ve seen yet for online campaigning. It’s an area where the ERS, along with many others, have long called for updates in electoral law. While there is still...Posted 06 Jun 2024