Archive for Electoral Commission
Norwich North by-election report undermines the case for Friday counting
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 [...]
The plans to cut election expenses may be dead but there are still lessons to learn
Blink and you might have missed it: first details of a discussion about ways to cut the costs of running elections are leaked and then Jack Straw promptly disowns them and kills off the discussion.
Given how weak the proposals were – and the relatively small sums involved – I think that was the right decision [...]
What the media didn’t tell you about the Bedford Mayor election
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 [...]
UKIP faces £367,697 bill after court rules magistrate wrong to levy small ‘fine’
Good news all in all for both the Electoral Commission and for the laws regulating donations to political parties with the decision today by an Appeal Court to overturn a previous strange ruling by a magistrate in the case of a series of donations to UKIP that the Electoral Commission had investigated and decided broke [...]
Bad systems, not tired people get election counts wrong
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 [...]
Electoral Commission heavily criticise report into plans for 2012 London elections
The Electoral Commission has published a report laying out a series of detailed and powerful criticisms of the cost-benefit analysis carried out for the Greater London Returning Officer into the use of e-counting for the 2012 London Mayor and Assembly elections.
However, the Greater London Returning Officer (GLRO) appears determined to go ahead with electronic counting, [...]
Bugger, an MP has just given me some homework
Ah, the perils of blogging. A little while back I blogged about the Government’s failure to use its existing legal powers to clarify how imprint rules for election leaflets apply to online campaigning, such as emails or YouTube videos. Got a bit of traffic, a few comments and an MP (Lynne Featherstone) decided to put in [...]
Election hustings meetings: Electoral Commission relaxes rules
A wider range of meetings at which people get to question Parliamentary candidates should be exempt from election expense limits according to new guidance from the Electoral Commission.
The Electoral Commission’s previous guidance was that costs related to hustings meetings did not need to feature in any of the individual candidate election expense returns if all [...]
New electoral registration rules now in force for elections
Good news: this time, it is a change in election law that is a jolly good thing. In the past, although the electoral register is updated each month, there was a pause over the summer and early autumn whilst councils carry out their big annual update. That means that for elections held during the pause, [...]
David Cameron targets the Electoral Commission
David Cameron’s speech today contains two pledges on public expenditure which are likely to meet with widespread approval across the political spectrum. Abolishing the Standards Board for England and cutting back on the Electoral Commission are policies by no means unique to Cameron – indeed the Liberal Democrats have made much of the running on [...]
