£5.6 million to promote voter ID website that wasn’t live yet We told the government that voter ID was a costly distraction. First, it was £55m for new A4 polling cards and envelopes. Then cash-strapped councils were forced to spend £1.3m on thousands of mirrors and... Posted 10 Jan 2023
How did Switzerland get proportional representation? In the early 1890s, a handful of Swiss cantons (states) held the first public elections in Europe to truly use proportional representation (PR). The success of these early votes meant that over the next few... Posted 06 Jan 2023
The top 5 most-read ERS articles from 2022 Every year we have a look through the stats to see which of our articles were the most popular with readers in the year coming to a close. So if you missed them the first... Posted 15 Dec 2022
The 9 best politics Twitter accounts to follow for fans of elections Becoming more informed in politics can be daunting. There’s so much information to consume and it comes at you so fast that it’s easy to become intimidated and give up. Here are some of the... Posted 09 Dec 2022
Brown Commission reforms offer first blueprint for much-needed democratic renewal Gordon Brown has now released A New Britain: Renewing our Democracy and Rebuilding our Economy – the findings of his Commission into how to repair our political system. In publishing this report, Keir Starmer is... Posted 06 Dec 2022
Ed Davey – Let’s make the next general election the last fought under First Past the Post This week we supported a panel with Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey, as part of a rescheduled conference event. The ERS attends all the major party conferences, but this year’s Liberal Democrat conference was cancelled... Posted 01 Dec 2022
2022 at the ERS: How we’ve worked with other organisations Each year we write an Annual Report which looks back at our achievements across the last 12 months, and explains how our team have campaigned towards securing our vision for a democracy fit for the... Posted 30 Nov 2022
2022 at the ERS: Party conference season report Each year we write an Annual Report which looks back at our achievements across the last 12 months, and explains how our team have campaigned towards securing our vision for a democracy fit for the... Posted 29 Nov 2022
ERS Scotland’s State of Scottish Democracy lecture draws crowd in Glasgow Thank you to everyone who made it along to Govan’s Pearce Institute to hear Professor James Mitchell present the first-ever ERS Scotland State of Scottish Democracy lecture. The event was a real success. We are... Posted 28 Nov 2022
2022 at the ERS: Our work behind the scenes Each year we write an Annual Report which looks back at our achievements across the last 12 months, and explains how our team have campaigned towards securing our vision for a democracy fit for the... Posted 28 Nov 2022