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

Since Finanical Crisis of 2007-8, austerity has been the dominant theme of UK public policy.  Successive governments have sought to cut back on public spending to reduce the budget deficit.  Austerity has been a key election issue, with cuts to schools and hospitals featuring prominently in election campaigns. In this new article, with Tyrone Jervier,…Read more The effects of public sector austerity on voter outreach

Jeremy Corbyn summarised many with his party's result in the 2017 UK General Election.  Immediately after the election, I put his result into historical context in a piece for The Conversation: Jeremy Corbyn’s stock has been on a wild ride in the last couple of years. When he was elected leader of the British Labour…Read more Jeremy Corbyn: where does his ‘success’ stand in Labour’s long history

It is general election night in the U.K.  In advance, here was my guide that I wrote for the night on The Conversation

I recently jointly presented research that I'm doing with colleagues from the Electoral Management Research Network (Leontine Loeber, Holly Ann Garnett and Carolien van Ham) at the 14th Conference of European Electoral Management Boards.  The conference took place in St. Petersburg, Russia. The research looks at how the management of elections can be improved.  My focus…Read more The 14th Conference of European Electoral Management Boards