Recent Articles

Explore the Electoral Reform Society's home for articles and insights, or scroll through the Society's article archive below.

View by category

View by date

Tackling online harms to our democracy must be a priority

Last week, the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee criticised the government for its repeated delays in publishing legislation to tackle online harms. In a statement calling for urgent action, committee...

Posted 20 Oct 2020

Democracy and ‘deterrence’: How out-of-date campaign rules leave the door open to turnout suppression

Presidential elections tend to highlight the best and worst of US democracy. In 2016, for instance, the winner of the popular vote did not win the election, due to the electoral college system – a...

Posted 20 Oct 2020

Does PR mean coalitions? As New Zealand shows – it’s all down to the voters

The New Zealand Labour party are celebrating a landslide win, with 49 percent of the vote and enough MPs to form a single-party government on their own. This is the first time since New Zealand...

Posted 20 Oct 2020

Voters risk being locked out – unless this crucial change is made

When the ‘virtual Parliament’ was launched at the end of April, the UK was witnessing around 5,000 new coronavirus cases a day. The first wave subsided. But now, we are seeing over 15,000 new cases...

Posted 20 Oct 2020

This simple change could help bring in the ‘missing millions’

Rather than putting up bureaucratic barriers to engaging with politics, we should be ensuring everyone can use their vote.

Posted 15 Oct 2020

Just 25 percent of attainers are registered

Parties can back this simple change today to help bring in the ‘missing millions’

A cross-party group of peers are backing an amendment to improve the accuracy of the electoral register setting out new ways to include 16 and 17- year olds on the nationwide list – so they...

Posted 08 Oct 2020

Over nine million are estimated to be missing from the register

Are Guernsey about to hold the strangest election in the world?

On 7 October, voters in Guernsey will head to the polls for what is likely to be the ‘strangest [election] in the world’. For the first time, the vote will be held across one island-wide constituency which will see...

Posted 06 Oct 2020

Government must do more to ‘level up politics’ for women and minorities

Despite some gains in the last general election, women and minority groups remain highly under-represented in politics, according to a new report ‘Data Drives Diversity’ published by the Centenary Action Group. Despite the 2019 parliament...

Posted 05 Oct 2020

It’s time for parties to open up about who is running for office

ERS in the Press – September 2020

As the government continues to implement new restrictions to fight the second wave of coronavirus, the cracks in Britain’s political system continue to grow behind the curtain. In September we released new research on party...

Posted 02 Oct 2020

Ministers just vowed to plough ahead with a ‘dangerous’ change to elections

The ERS and groups representing elderly voters and BME communities are warning that mandatory voter ID risks pulling up the drawbridge to thousands of voters, after the government confirmed plans to impose the ‘show your...

Posted 02 Oct 2020