The Scottish Parliament Select Committee on Local Government and Communities  is undertaking a review of the payments made to Returning Officers for their work at elections. I was asked to give written and oral evidence. Concerns were raised in the media about the amount of money that Returning Officers receive because they are already highly paid…Read more Returning Officer Payments in Scotland

Electoral administration was a dominant theme in the 2016 US Presidential election campaign.  According to the eventual winner, President-elect Donald Trump, the contest would be rigged against him. After the election a New York Times Editorial pointed towards other problems.....queues at polling stations, however.  This could amount to 'poll taxes by another name'.  I say more…Read more Electoral administration at the 2016 US Presidential election

There are commonly warnings about electoral irregularities in advance of US Presidential elections.  In 2016, however, these warnings are starker than ever before.  I wrote this for The Conversation about whether the decentralised nature of US elections helps or hinders the possibility of things going wrong: Donald Trump’s claims that the US presidential election will…Read more The US election won’t be rigged – but the system has to be fixed

As the US Presidential election reaches an exciting final few days, I wrote this piece for the Washington Post.  It focuses on Donald Trump's accusations that the election will be rigged, and the similar claims that were made in the UK before the Brexit referendum: How is Donald Trump’s presidential campaign like the Brexit vote…Read more Donald Trump, Brexit and Electoral Fraud

The UK's recent Brexit referendum will probably be looked back on, as political scientists say, as a critical juncture in British politics.  It had profound consequences for the governance of Britain, party politics and international relations. But was it a referendum that was run well?  Did the electoral machinery hold up in the face of…Read more An Evaluation of Electoral Administration at the EU Referendum

Last night, in the final hours before the EU voter registration deadline, the official registration website crashed.  Many people who were wanting to register because they were inspired by the TV debates, or were planning to register late, were locked out of the referendum.  Many of these were young people wanting to vote for the…Read more EU Voter Registration Website Crashes

As the UK heads to the polls for 'Super Thursday' today's headlines are being taken over by events in Barnet.  Reports are that many people are being turned away from the polls because their name is not on the register.  It seems that many polling stations had wrong/incomplete registers.  The Independent are reporting that: 'An estimated…Read more The #Barnet blog: context and research on today’s polling problems

Earlier in the month I attended the 13th meeting of Electoral Management Bodies organised by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, held in Bucharest, Romania.  Leontine Loeber and I presented our proposed research project on 'Improving electoral management: The organisational determinants of electoral integrity'. The aim of the project is to increase the existing…Read more Our survey of European Electoral Management Boards

Last month, Bite the Ballot and I presented a draft report to the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democratic Participation.  The report pointed out, at a time when millions are missing from the electoral register, what can be done to bring about a more inclusive electoral register. The APPG has now published a final version of…Read more UK Parliamentarians endorse voter registration reforms

Elections could not happen without the hundreds of thousands of people who give up their time to staff polling stations and ensure votes are issued, cast & counted. These poll workers are a crucial resource for electoral officials and many countries experience problems recruiting sufficient numbers of poll workers. Indeed, approximately 120,000 people are estimated to…Read more Why do poll workers volunteer?