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How does proportional representation work in Germany?

[Note: Germany updated their voting system for the 2025 election, and introduced new rules. You can find out about that in our article on the election] Elections to Germany’s Bundestag – Germany’s House of Commons...

Posted 18 Dec 2018

Proportionality and fairness makes this an improvement on Westminster

Does Ireland use proportional representation?

Ireland has a long history of using proportional representation and, specifically, the Single Transferable Vote (STV). STV is the Electoral Reform Society’s preferred electoral system. Rather than one person representing everyone in a small area,...

Posted 11 Dec 2018

How does mandatory voter ID disenfranchise the public?

The government is set to face a legal challenge to its plans to ban people without ID from voting across the UK – starting with the trials it intends to run at the 2019 local...

Posted 04 Dec 2018

Why are there Bishops in the House of Lords?

When most people think of Bishops they imagine a man or woman saying prayers in a cathedral, not making the laws that govern all of us. But there are Bishops today who sit in the...

Posted 29 Nov 2018

How the Democrats could win the popular vote but not control of the House

Brenda from Bristol famously cried “not another one!” at the news that we were to hold an election in 2017, just two years since the last one. Let’s hope she doesn’t plan to move to...

Posted 06 Nov 2018

In 1951 more people voted Labour than Conservative, yet the Conservatives formed the government

The General Election on this day in 1951 couldn’t have been more decisive. Six years since Labour’s victory in 1945, and one year after their victory in 1950, the public was still behind Clement Attlee’s...

Posted 25 Oct 2018

How can a party lose support but gain seats? The upside-down world of Westminster’s voting system

What would you expect to happen if a party gained support in a fresh election? Most people would expect them to gain MPs. It seems obvious that a change in popular support should lead to...

Posted 14 Sep 2018

Seven things you need to know about the local elections

Blink and you’ll miss the coverage, but local elections are happening on Thursday 3 May in England. A lot has changed since these seats were last contested, in 2014. We had the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition government,...

Posted 16 Apr 2018

Why Voter ID is a solution seeking a problem

The government will be trialling making ID mandatory at polling stations this May. Voters in Bromley, Woking and Gosport will have to show officials their papers before being permitted to exercise their right to vote....

Posted 19 Mar 2018

Why the government’s mandatory voter ID plans are a terrible idea

The Electoral Commission has launched a new campaign against electoral fraud – a laudable effort to limit this type of crime. But it also brings under the spotlight the upcoming trials of mandatory voter ID...

Posted 06 Mar 2018