Tag: Toby James
Electoral officials need more money to run elections during Covid-19
Erik Asplund, Toby James and Alistair Clark audit the additional costs countries are facing to run safe and accessible elections during the Covid-19 pandemic. They argue it is vital that election management is sufficiently well funded during this crisis to maintain voter participation and trust in electoral outcomes.
It is time for automatic voter registration in the UK
Ahead of each UK election, there is a rush to get people registered to vote, and confusion about who is already registered. In a new report Toby James and Paul Bernal set out how to improve the system while protecting data privacy, through automatic or assisted voter registration, and so widen access to democratic participation.
General election 2019: why school buildings need to be used as polling stations
The last time the UK held an election in December was 1923. As preparations are made for a snap election, and despite the logistical problems this might cause, Toby James explains why schools should, as usual, be used at election time, as a government minister and electoral officials clash.
#DeniedMyVote – why many EU citizens were unable to vote in the European Parliament elections
On Thursday 23 May, the UK participated in European Parliament elections. Citizens of all EU countries should be able to vote in these elections in the country they live, but many non-UK EU citizens found they had been excluded from the electoral register and were unable to vote. Toby James explains how the government’s long-term failure to improve our electoral laws and short-term pressures led to many people being denied their right to vote.
Let’s stop the last minute registration rush: It’s time for a complete and inclusive electoral register for Britain
As the deadline for registering for the EU referendum looms, Lord Rennard, Toby James and Oliver Sidorczuk highlight the problem with last minute scrambles and argue that the UK should draw on lessons from abroad to achieve a comprehensive electoral register. Credit: Lynn Friedman CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Similar PostsIt is time for automatic voter registration in […]
An open letter to the Government: The UK is facing a silent democratic crisis
The UK is facing a “silent, growing crisis in our democracy” with millions of people missing from the electoral register, David Cameron has been warned, in a letter from more than 50 politicians, academics and campaigners this week. Below is the full open letter that was sent to the Prime Minster and published in The […]
The polling and registration process needs to be made simpler, more convenient and better resourced
The UK suffers from low electoral turnout, with young people in particular increasingly unlikely to turn out to vote in elections. At the same time, critics of our current electoral infrastructure highlight the risk of fraud. Here, Toby S. James, and Alistair Clark show that our polling and registration processes should be made simpler and […]
The UK’s electoral infrastructure is functional due to the efforts of many individuals, but it cannot be taken for granted
Alistair Clark and Toby S. James argue that many people overlook the exhaustive efforts that poll workers put into elections. A new study on their experiences suggest that the 2015 general election was well-run, but some citizens were turned away from the polling station presumably because they were not registered to vote. Similar PostsGeneral election […]
The latest Commons Political Reform Committee report illustrates popular opinion on voter engagement measures
The House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee recently released a new report evaluating a range of ideas to increase political engagement and to stem the tide of apathy towards democracy. Democratic Audit’s Carl Cullinane runs the rule over the report, assessing its recommendations and findings on voting, registration and voter information. Similar PostsThe Estonian experience shows […]
Individual electoral registration needs further reform to counteract its negative side effects
Toby James gave the opening talk at the Association of Electoral Administrators conference in Brighton this week. The topic of the talk was ‘From here to where? Modernisation of electoral administration in Britain.’ Here he looks at how the way we run elections can be made improved after May and argues modernisation of the system is […]
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