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Electoral Commission Chair shares perspective with MPs and Peers at ERS backed event

Last month we hosted an APPG for Electoral Reform event at Portcullis House, The future of the electoral system – in conversation with John Pullinger CB, Chair of the Electoral Commission. We were delighted to...

Posted 11 Apr 2024

5 ways politicians and civil society can bolster the strength of our democratic system

Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee publish welcome electoral registration report

Last week, the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee published a new report on Electoral Registration. Even though electoral registration is mandatory, millions of people are missing from the electoral register, and the ERS has...

Posted 26 Mar 2024

Electoral Commission chair calls out government on voter ID and finance loopholes

In a recent, wide-ranging, interview with the Financial Times, John Pullinger, the chair of the Electoral Commission, expressed concerns about the government’s voter ID scheme and the threat to the Commission’s independence contained in the...

Posted 25 Jan 2024

We should be building barriers to suspicious money, not the ballot box

The top 5 most-read ERS articles from 2023

Every year we have a look through the stats to see which of our articles were the most popular with readers in the year coming to a close. So if you missed them the first...

Posted 14 Dec 2023

Government report can’t say if voter ID made any difference to problem it was supposed to solve

The government has published its evaluation of the Elections Act changes, including the voter ID requirement, used for the first time in the English local elections in May. Back in September, three separate independent reports...

Posted 08 Dec 2023

14,000 voters were turned away - was voter ID worth it?

The political reforms that were lacking from the King’s Speech

Democracy was a conspicuous omission from yesterday’s King’s Speech. The pomp and ceremony of the occasion was the government’s last chance to set out a legislative agenda before the next election. Yet despite Rishi Sunak...

Posted 08 Nov 2023

Here is what we would like to see in a King’s Speech that was serious about repairing our democracy

Voter ID makes its unwelcome Scottish debut in Rutherglen and Hamilton West

If you live in Rutherglen and Hamilton West and are registered to vote, tomorrow is the day you can go vote in the long-awaited by-election. That is if you have, and remember to take, photo...

Posted 04 Oct 2023

The first time you have needed photo ID to vote in an election in Scotland

Voter ID rules criticised by MPs, election watchdog and election administrators

This week three separate independent reports have exposed the extent of the unnecessary damage voter ID has wrought to our democracy. Voter ID was rushed through for the local elections in May which meant voters...

Posted 15 Sep 2023

The Government needs to scrap this unnecessary and damaging policy

Now we know at least 14,000 were blocked from voting, voter ID should be scrapped

On the 23rd June, the Electoral Commission published their provisional report on the rollout of voter ID. One figure stands out from their research: 14,000 eligible voters were denied their democratic right to cast their...

Posted 11 Jul 2023

The Government needs to scrap this ill thought through and unnecessary scheme

People were turned away from polling stations last week and they’ve told us why

One of the big stories of May’s English local elections is not the results of the vote, but about the process of voting itself. For the first time, voters in England who headed to the...

Posted 17 May 2023