The Reformer

Polling Station

Barriers to entry: How do electoral thresholds work?

A common feature of many Party List PR systems is an electoral threshold – a pre-set bar that parties have...

William Murphy Irish STV ballots

Which votes get transferred with the Single Transferable Vote?

The first meetings of the Electoral Reform Society, then known as the Proportional Representation Society, quickly settled on the Single...

Irish STV Ballots

Hare vs Droop: How to set the quota under STV

The first meetings of the Proportional Representation Society quickly attracted many leading lights of the Victorian age – including Lewis...

Polling Station

What is the difference between D’hondt and Sainte-Laguë?

Looking at just Party List systems in western Europe, there is a lot of variation.

New Zealand’s party system is a strong contender for what might happen if Britain moved to PR

What would the party system look like if the UK had proportional representation?

By looking at the experiences of similar countries and the devolved governments, we can see which kinds of party system...

Senedd Cymru Welsh Parliament

How May’s elections for the Senedd Cymru will work

On May 6, more than 2 million voters will be called to elect their 60 representatives in the Senedd /...

How May’s London Assembly elections will work

This May, millions of Londoners will go to the polls to vote for the Mayor and the London Assembly. The...

How elections for the Mayor of London will work

On May 6, one year after elections were supposed to be held, more than six million Londoners will be called...

This is the first time that the Commissions advice has been ignored

What is the House of Lords Appointments Commission?

A little-known non-departmental public body, the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC), has recently been thrust into the spotlight, following...

Voters of all parties suffered in some part of the UK

Who benefits from Westminster’s First Past the Post voting system?

Westminster's voting system hurts voters. Here's how.

The Electoral Commission is not an all-encompassing democracy watchdog

What does the Electoral Commission do?

The Electoral Commission is an independent body established in 2001. Its mandate is limited by what is set out in...

With PR, the number of MPs in parliament are ‘in proportion’ to the votes cast

What is proportional representation?

Lots of people think the way we vote in the UK isn’t fair. They want something called proportional representation. But...