Mark Pack

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Electoral Commission chair Jenny Watson repeated the Commission’s interest in seeing a switch to weekend voting: Flexible election schedules, including opening the polls for entire weekends, should be considered to make the system more relevant to 21st century life, she said. These comments echo strong public support for weekend voting, [...] »

The 2010 edition of the Electoral Commission's "Handbook for polling station staff" contains this welcome advice for those staff: »

Hundreds of local records which would reveal the extent of Lord Ashcroft's donations to the Conservative Party during the crucial last few weeks of the 2005 general election campaign have been destroyed the Electoral Commission has confirmed. »

Earlier this week the Electoral Commission published a new report, The completeness and accuracy of electoral registers in Great Britain, looking at how electoral registration is working in the UK. Although it's been widely covered, the coverage has been very similar - taking the top line figures from the report and covering press release without digging in to what the report really says. So if we venture in to the inner reaches of the report, what do we find? »

The decision taken last year to let Rwanda join the Commonwealth means that Rwandan citizens living in the UK acquire the right to vote, including in Parliamentary elections. This change will (thanks to an amendment to the British Nationality Act 1981, adding Rwanda to the list of Commonwealth countries) will come in to force for elections from 10 March. »

Electoral registration is run by local councils, so in order to get on the electoral register you need to fill in a form and return it to your local council. Filling in other paperwork, such as to do with paying Council Tax or getting a driving license, will not add you to the electoral register [...] »

The Electoral Commission's report into the November 2009 Parliamentary by-election in Glasgow North East has condemned the Labour Party for breaking the Code of Conduct on postal voting, saying the party repeatedly failed to process postal vote forms promptly. »

When I sat down to read Peter Watt’s memoirs, Inside Out, I was curious to find the answer to two questions. First, I’d met him regularly at Electoral Commission meetings before he became Labour’s General Secretary and he always struck me as a bright, enthusiastic – and young – person. When he was appointed General Secretary [...] »

The public overwhelmingly backs major  changes to the way our electoral system is run according to a new poll commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. Just under two-thirds of people (65%) agree that, “This country should adopt a new voting system that would give parties seats in Parliament in proportion to their share of votes” [...] »

Mailings intended to tell people who have recently moved how to get on the electoral register have mistakenly been going out to people who have not moved in years. »