Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: Over the last few years a wide range of attempts have been made to raise turnout at elections in the UK. The broad conclusion is very simple: all-postal ballots raise turnout significantly (albeit at the cost of various drawbacks) and nothing else that has been tried does so. E-voting, early voting,

The Wardman Wire have posted a video of Liberal Vision’s take on the rise and fall of New Labour. I'm quite surprised by how I felt after watching it, I didn't expect to be so angry and disgusted. Looking over my posts it shouldn't really be a surprise to me. Yet I watched it with a growing sense of it just being so beyond the pale, it's scary that so few can have that amount of power and can do...

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: Although this summer’s Parliamentary by-election in Norwich North kicked off much subsequent debate about the alleged benefits of Friday (rather than Thursday night) counts after it was counted on a Friday, a close reading of the Electoral Commission’s report into the Norwich North by-election reveals that in fact the Norwich experience

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: Good news, though you’d be hard press to spot it from the media reports. On a like-for-like basis turnout was up significantly in the Bedford Mayor election this week. In the first Mayor election, in October 2002, turnout was just 25% whilst this Thursday it was up to 31%. Six percentage points

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: Both the recent controversies over whether or not general election counts should take place on the Thursday night and whether or not the 2012 London Mayor and Assembly elections should use e-counting touch, in part, on the question of the accuracy of manual counts. This is an area where systematic evidence is

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: A major part of the point of a democratic electoral system is that those elected to public office can be held to account by the public for their actions. The anger we often see over the behaviour of MPs – whether on matters of policy (such as the Iraq war) or

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: A new studyof MPs on Facebook shows widespread use of the social network by Parliamentarians, but also a range of curious choices about how to use the medium which may in part reflect a failure to change default settings. The study, carried out by Woodnewton Associates and based on evidence gathered in May

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: Hands up everyone who thought the problem with current rules for controlling constituency expenditure was that they work if a Parliament last for four years but not if it lasts for five? Nobody? Oh well, that’s the basis on which Parliament has just changed the law anyway. This provision of the Political

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: The last year certainly hasn’t been a quiet one when it comes to controversies over how parties raise and spend money. Whilst the massive and long-running story of MPs’ expenses has rather overshadowed the previous stories, Royal Assent has just been given to the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009, which

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: With only around 1.5% of the population having access to the internet, it may look as if the role for online campaigning in the next Afghanistani Presidential election is rather limited. At least one candidate though is hoping to demonstrate otherwise in the run-up to voting on 20 August, with a second round if necessary