News and Comment

The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

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9 things you need to know about the 2019 General Election

You probably heard a lot about the number of seats parties won (and lost) in December’s General Election. What was less prominent was just how poorly the results reflected how people actually voted. The ERS...

Posted 24 Dec 2019

A 1% increase in the Conservatives’ vote share led to a landslide

How do you register to vote and when do you have to do it by?

Whilst registration statistics have gone dramatically up since the date for the next general election became official, arguably the level of first-time registration may be being overstated. The statistics we are given tell us the...

Posted 13 Nov 2019

To vote you must be registered by the 26th of November

Where is proportional representation used in the UK?

Westminster’s voting system is well and truly broken. The system with which we elect our MPs is struggling to produce fair and representative results. The 2017 General Election showed that, for the third time in a...

Posted 05 Nov 2019

Outside of Westminster, most ways of electing parliaments and assemblies don’t involve wasting so many votes.

In Wales, votes at 16 is one step closer to reality

As the Welsh Assembly takes a historic step towards extending voting to 16 and 17-year-olds in Wales, Daniel Priestley – Law Student at Cardiff University currently on placement with the Electoral Reform Society shares how the...

Posted 17 Oct 2019

Building a stronger Senedd: Why size (still) matters

Almost since its inception, there has been discussion and debate about a larger National Assembly here in Wales. Most recently, an expert panel on Assembly reform led by Professor Laura McAllister stated simply that the...

Posted 19 Jul 2019

Senedd Cymru Welsh Parliament