The covid pandemic has been a profound challenge to electoral integrity worldwide. Our research project on covid and elections, funded by UKRI, has been tracing developments worldwide and identifying best practices. Country cases are being published regularly, and the case study on Spain is now available. Download: Case study on Spain Read all materials: Elections…Read more Covid and Elections – new case study on lessons from Spain available

(This text is being updated as new measures are announced/clarified). Last updated: 1st March 2020. We now know a lot more about how the local elections in England will take place, this May. There had long been speculation that they would be delayed, with some media reports claiming that a postponement had been decided. The…Read more How will English polling stations compare to international practices, during the pandemic?

My recent book on Comparative Electoral Management is currently free to download on Amazon as a Kindle book. Get it quick, before the flash-sale disappears. Please check Amazon in your respective country, but here is the UK link: Comparative Electoral Management: Performance, Networks and Instruments (Routledge Studies in Elections, Democracy and Autocracy) eBook: James, Toby…Read more Free to download: Comparative Electoral Management

Drawing from our project with International IDEA on covid and elections, Alistair Clark and I called for urgent action to make the elections in England covid-ready: UK government has delayed elections longer than most countries – and England still isn't ready to hold pandemic votes in May (theconversation.com). I was also on LBC talking about…Read more Should the English elections be postponed (again)?

The Trump presidency has been one of the most eventful and controversial in American history, with consequences for the governance and policy of the United States and beyond.   His time in office saw claims that the democratic norms were being undermined, the spread of Covid-19, and a changed approach in US foreign policy.  He was…Read more Call for Papers: The Legacy of Trump and Trumpism

Policy Studies is a long-standing journal concerned with public policy and governance.  Like the real world that it studies, the journal itself has undergone many changes since it was launched. From October 2020, I have the great honour of serving as the editor-in-chief. New papers and special issue proposals are encouraged. The journal has revised aims…Read more New Directions for Policy Studies

When is it democratic to postpone an election? Surprisingly, there is very little political science/legal literature on this question. Sead Alihodzic of International IDEA and I provide an answer to this question in the Election Law Journal, and introduce a new typology of different types of postponement. Download it free, here: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/elj.2020.0642. And here is…Read more When is it democratic to postpone an election?

Hacked electoral registers. Calls for online voting. Deep fakes on social media. We have now entered the era of cyber elections which pose both threats and opportunities for electoral integrity. International and national laws must now keep pace. Or so a Holly Ann Garnett and I argue in the Election Law Journal. The article is…Read more The era of cyber elections is here

The global spread of COVID-19 has already profoundly impacted the health and welfare of citizens around the world. Decisions being made about how elections are run during the pandemic will have a further profound effect, shaping the health of democracy in the future. Read my blog with International IDEA about some key questions that policy…Read more Adapting elections to COVID-19: five key questions for decision makers

Automatic electoral registration (AER) has been proposed as policy to increase the number of people on the electoral register in the UK. The perception that automatic registration could significantly boost participation in democracy has led to cross party support including support by the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee in its 2014 report on voter engagement,…Read more Is it time for Automatic Voter Registration in the UK?