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The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society. You can also browse our articles by section in the article archive.

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In these divided times, a new consensus is emerging around our broken election laws

Fresh off the back of our call for Parliament to take action on Britain’s analogue-age campaign rules – and the launch of our petition for an end to ‘dark ads’ – commentators and public figures...

Posted 31 Jul 2018

Why it’s time to shine a light on ‘dark ads’ online

Following a request by the Culture Media and Sport committee, Facebook has revealed the EU referendum adverts paid for by Vote Leave and created by Aggregate IQ. In the modern world of campaigning, political parties and campaigns can...

Posted 30 Jul 2018

Campaign regulation is needed now before all trust is gone

The need to tighten the rules around how political parties and campaigns target voters online is a hot topic right now. Last week’s fines against Vote Leave for overspending (and breaching other key rules) in...

Posted 24 Jul 2018

What were these ‘so-called’ trials of voter ID supposed to prove?

One of the great mysteries of the voter ID trials in May’s English local elections was what exactly the trials were meant to be testing. Out of 44.6 million votes cast in 2017, there were...

Posted 19 Jul 2018

From rule-breakers to foreign influencers, our democracy is under threat

The Electoral Commission has fined Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign, £61,000 for breaking electoral law during the 2016 EU referendum. This could be a game-changer. Its long-awaited report, published on Tuesday, states that there...

Posted 17 Jul 2018

Revealed: Abuse and harassment in Welsh politics is rife. Here’s how to stamp it out

We got a sense of the shocking scale of abuse in Westminster last year. But there has been relatively little heard about the issues surrounding harassment and diverse representation in Wales. It turns out the situation...

Posted 12 Jul 2018

Why pressure is growing from the PM’s own ranks to back votes at 16

The Electoral Reform Society has launched a new pamphlet titled ‘Civic Duty: The Conservative Case for Votes at 16 & 17.’ Below is its introduction written by ERS Chief Executive, Darren Hughes. British politics is...

Posted 11 Jul 2018

These ‘sham elections’ in the House of Lords must end – as the first step towards real change

Today, with 12 votes, the Earl of Devon won the by-election to decide who will replace Earl Baldwin of Bewdley in the House of Lords. Wherever you stand on the House of Lords, the Prime...

Posted 04 Jul 2018

A cross-party group of MPs are fighting Westminster’s broken voting system

This week is the first National Democracy Week – a rare moment to put the ‘nuts and bolts’ of democracy on the agenda. The elections of the past year have shown that Westminster’s First Past...

Posted 04 Jul 2018

National Democracy Week: The Conservative case for extending the franchise is stronger than ever

The following piece is a guest post by Owen Meredith, National Chairman of the Tory Reform Group. This inaugural National Democracy Week, we should take a moment to remember the sacrifices made by millions to protect...

Posted 03 Jul 2018