Since March, I've been in Sydney, working as a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Electoral Integrity Project. While in Australia I've been presenting draft material from a forthcoming book on Comparative Electoral Management.  Having presented at ANU and Canberra over the past few weeks, this week I presented in Sydney. Two draft chapters can…Read more Comparative Electoral Management – draft chapters

Calling all electoral officials in England! Alistair Clark and I are running a survey of the 2018 local election poll workers. Email invitations have been sent directly to all Returning Officers. Please look out for the email invitations get in touch with any questions. For more info: http://www.electoralmanagement.com/2018-english-local-elections-survey/

The English local elections of 2018 are just behind us.  Turnout, as is usual, was low. Next time around universities will have a statutory role to play in getting their students registered to vote.  But they need not wait. Here's a short piece on this for HE Fortnightly. Universities face new directions from the Office…Read more How universities can encourage their students to vote

The Scottish government published an exciting document making proposals for electoral reform in December 2017.  The Scottish Parliament recently gained new powers over the conduct of Scottish Parliamentary elections and electoral registration and already has devolved responsibility for local government elections. Earlier in 2018, I was kindly invited to speak at an event organised by…Read more Electoral Modernisation in Scotland

Many academics around the globe, driven by a desire to use their accumulated expertise to improve the world, have long sought to achieve what is now known within higher education management as ‘impact’.  A new surge of activity, however, has arguably been unleashed in some countries in recent years.  Universities and academics have been pressured…Read more The Higher Education Impact Agenda and Policy Change

The Scottish government published an ambitious programme for reforming elections this week, which should be carefully read by everyone interested in elections across the UK. The one aspect (among many, many, many other important ones...) to catch the press was the proposal to trial electronic voting methods, such as internet voting. Here is a quick…Read more Scotland eyes online voting: here are some tips from past pilots

Last month I was invited to Stockholm by International IDEA to take part in developing a new BRIDGE training course on the Cost of Elections (and see some proper snow...). BRIDGE is a world-leading set of training courses that have been developed to improve the knowledge of electoral administrators around the world. Here's a link…Read more Investing in Elections Around the World

Webroots published a report on the Cost of Elections last month in Parliament, and I was given the honour of being part of the panel to respond to it.  The report made the argument that introducing internet voting would save money. I had published a report earlier in the year, also called the Cost of…Read more Internet voting and the cost of elections

Over the summer, the Welsh Government published an exciting consultation paper about reforming local government elections in Wales.  With the Wales Act 2017 giving the Welsh Assembly greater autonomy on electoral and registration, there are new opportunities for innovation and democratic renewal. You can read my submission to the consultation here.

How strong is the democratic integrity of UK elections? Are turnout, candidacies and participation maximised? The Democratic Audit is a long established project which has provided regular Audits of the quality of democracy in the UK. Originally set up in 1991 by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust through two partners – Charter88 and the Human…Read more An Assessment of UK Electoral Integrity in 2017