Abbreviation | ERS |
---|---|
Founded | 16 January 1884 London, United Kingdom |
Type | Non-governmental organisation |
Focus | Democracy, electoral reform, elections |
Location | |
Area served | United Kingdom |
Method | Lobbying, research, innovation |
Key people |
|
Affiliations | Proportional Representation Society of Ireland (1911–1922) |
Website | www |
Formerly called | Proportional Representation Society |
The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) is an independent campaigning organisation based in the United Kingdom which promotes electoral reform. It seeks to replace first-past-the-post voting with proportional representation, advocating the single transferable vote, and replacing the House of Lords. [1] It is the world's oldest operating organisation concerned with political and electoral reform.
The Electoral Reform Society seeks a "representative democracy fit for the 21st century." [2] The society advocates the replacement of the first-past-the-post and plurality-at-large voting systems with a proportional voting system, the single transferable vote. First-past-the-post is currently used for elections to the House of Commons and for most local elections in England and Wales, while plurality-at-large is used in multi-member council wards in England and Wales, and was historically used in the multi-member parliamentary constituencies before their abolition. [3]
It also campaigns for improvements to public elections and representative democracy, and is a regular commentator on all aspects of representation, public participation and democratic governance in the United Kingdom.
The ERS was founded in January 1884 as the Proportional Representation Society by the polymath and politician John Lubbock. [4] By the end of the year, the society had attracted the support of 184 Members of Parliament, split almost equally between Conservatives and Liberals. Other early members included Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll), C. P. Scott, editor of The Manchester Guardian and Thomas Hare, inventor of the Single Transferable Vote. [5] The initial aim of the society was to have proportional representation included in the terms of the Representation of the People Act 1884 and the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 23), but, despite a determined campaign of political lobbying, it was unable to do so. [6]
A PRS pamphlet of the 1920s described the organisation's aims thus:
Alongside its sister organisation, Proportional Representation Society of Ireland, the society succeeded in getting STV introduced in local and then national elections in Ireland, and in numerous religious, educational and professional organisations. Following World War II, the society suffered from financial problems and a lack of public appetite for reform. When Fianna Fáil put to a referendum a proposal to revert to first-past-the-post voting twice (1959 and 1968), the society, under the leadership of Enid Lakeman, led a successful campaign to keep the STV system in Ireland. [8]
In 1973, the STV was introduced in Northern Ireland for elections to local councils and to the new Northern Ireland Assembly, and the society and its staff were called upon to advise in the programme of education set up by the government to raise public awareness. [9]
Interest in proportional representation revived sharply in Britain after the February 1974 general election. From then on, the society was able to secure a higher public profile for its campaigns. In 1983, the society was recognised by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as a Non-governmental organization with Consultative Status.
The society has campaigned successfully for the introduction of STV for local elections in Scotland, [10] and led the call for a referendum on the voting system in the wake of the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal as part of the Vote for a Change campaign. [11] It is a founding member of the Votes at 16 Coalition.
The society was later a principal funder of the YES! To Fairer Votes campaign in the unsuccessful bid for a Yes vote in the 2011 referendum on the Alternative Vote. [12] Its chief executive, Katie Ghose, served as the campaign's chair.
In 2012, the Society criticised Government handling of its policy of elected Police and crime commissioners – which led to the lowest turnout in British peacetime history.
In August 2012, the society predicted turnout could be as low as 18.5% and outlined steps to salvage the elections, mobilising support from both candidates and voters. [13] The Government did not change tack, dubbing the prediction a "silly season story". [14] Following the result (in which the national turnout was a mere 15.1%, even lower than the society's prediction), the Society branded the Government's approach to elections as a "comedy of errors", views that were reiterated by Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. [15]
The society led bids to change the Government's approach to introduction of Individual Electoral Registration, which the New Statesman dubbed "the biggest political scandal you've never heard of". [16] Electoral Commission sources estimated as many as 10 million voters could disappear from the electoral roll under government plans, predominantly poor, young or black, and more liable to vote Labour. [17] The society succeeded in securing changes to the legislation. [18]
In a 2014 report, the society recommended several ways to make the European Union more accountable and argued that there was a democratic deficit. These included: better scrutiny of EU legislation by the British parliament, a voting system which gives voters more influence over individual candidates (e.g. single transferable vote) and recruitment of party candidates with a wider ranges of views on the EU. [19]
In August 2016, the society published a highly critical report on the referendum and called for a review of how future events are run. Contrasting it very unfavourably with the 'well-informed grassroots' campaign for Scottish independence, ERS Chief Executive Katie Ghose described it as "dire" with “glaring democratic deficiencies” which left voters bewildered. Katie Ghose noted a generally negative response to establishment figures with 29% of voters saying David Cameron (a Remain supporter) made them more likely to vote leave, whilst only 14% said he made them want to vote remain. Looking ahead, the society called for an official organisation to highlight misleading claims and for Ofcom to define the role that broadcasters are expected to play. [20]
In February 2018, the ERS reported that hundreds of seats were being effectively 'reserved' by men, holding back women's representation. Their report states that 170 seats are being held by men first elected in 2005 or before – with few opportunities for women to take those seats or selections. [21] [22]
In September 2020, the Electoral Reform Society joined with other pressure groups (including Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform) and Labour MPs to launch Labour for a New Democracy, a campaign to "build support for UK electoral reform in Labour with the aim of changing party policy by the time its next conference takes place". [23] According to polling, three-quarters of Labour members believe the party should commit to supporting proportional representation and adopt it as a policy. [24] The motion for the 2021 Labour Party conference [25] [26] was defeated despite 80% of CLP delegates voting in favour due to an overwhelming vote against by the affiliated trade unions, most of which at the time did not have policy on electoral reform. [27]
Proportional representation (PR) refers to any type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions among voters. The essence of such systems is that all votes cast – or almost all votes cast – contribute to the result and are effectively used to help elect someone – not just a bare plurality or (exclusively) the majority – and that the system produces mixed, balanced representation reflecting how votes are cast.
The single transferable vote (STV), sometimes known as proportional ranked choice voting (P-RCV), is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate preferences if their preferred candidate is eliminated or elected with surplus votes, so that their vote is used to elect someone they prefer over others in the running. STV aims to approach proportional representation based on votes cast in the district where it is used, so that each vote is worth about the same as another. Formally, STV satisfies a fairness criterion known as proportionality for solid coalitions.
First-past-the-post voting is an electoral system wherein voters cast a vote for a single candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins the election. Analogous systems for multi-winner contests are known as plurality block voting or "block voting" systems; both FPTP and block voting are "plurality" systems in that the winner needs only a plurality of the votes and not an absolute majority. The term first-past-the-post is a metaphor from horse racing of the plurality-voted candidate winning such a race; the electoral system is formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts, and informally called choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting or score voting.
Electoral reform in New Zealand has been a political issue in the past as major changes have been made to both parliamentary and local government electoral systems.
The alternative vote plus (AV+), or alternative vote top-up, is a semi-proportional voting system. AV+ was devised by the 1998 Jenkins Commission which first proposed the idea as a system that could be used for elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
A referendum was held in the Canadian province of British Columbia on May 17, 2005, to determine whether or not to adopt the recommendation of the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform to replace the existing first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP) with a single transferable vote system (BC-STV). It was held in conjunction with the BC Legislative Assembly election of 2005. Voters were given two ballots at that time: a ballot to vote for a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (MLA) in their constituency and a referendum ballot. The referendum received considerable support from the electorate but failed in meeting the 60-percent threshold that had been set. A second referendum was held in 2009.
The Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform (LCER) is an organisation formed of members and supporters of the British Labour Party, who are interested in issues of democratic renewal and electoral reform.
BC-STV is the proposed voting system recommended by the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in October 2004 for use in British Columbia, and belongs to the single transferable vote family of voting systems. BC-STV was supported by a majority of the voters in a referendum held in 2005 but the government had legislated that it would not be bound by any vote lower than 60 percent in favour. Because of the strong majority support for BC-STV, the government elected to stage a second referendum in 2009, but with increased public funding for information campaigns to better inform the electorate about the differences between the existing and proposed systems. The leadership of both the "yes" side and the "no" side were assigned by the government. The proposal was rejected with 60.9 percent voting against, vs. 39.1 percent in favour, in the 2009 vote.
Historically, the single transferable vote (STV) electoral system has seen a series of relatively modest periods of usage and disusage throughout the world; however, today it is seeing increasing popularity and proposed implementation as a method of proportional representation and a goal of electoral reform. STV has been used in many different local, regional and national electoral systems, as well as in various other types of bodies, around the world.
Enid Lakeman, OBE was a British political reformer, writer and politician, noted for her long-standing championship of the single transferable vote system of elections.
Scotland uses different electoral systems for elections to Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and to local councils. A different system was also in use between 1999 and 2019 for United Kingdom elections to the European Parliament. Historically, only First Past the Post (FPTP) was used for all elections in Scotland, but this changed in 1999 both with the introduction of D'Hondt elections to the EU Parliament and the inception the same year of the devolved Scottish Parliament. Two of the devolved legislatures in the United Kingdom - the Scottish Parliament and the Senedd - use the Additional Members System (AMS). AMS has been used for every Scottish Parliament election since 1999, with the most recent being in 2021.
Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems which alters how public desires are expressed in election results.
There are five types of elections in the United Kingdom: elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elections to devolved parliaments and assemblies, local elections, mayoral elections, and police and crime commissioner elections. Within each of those categories, there may also be by-elections. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday, and under the provisions of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 the timing of general elections can be held at the discretion of the prime minister during any five-year period. All other types of elections are held after fixed periods, though early elections to the devolved assemblies and parliaments can occur in certain situations. The five electoral systems used are: the single member plurality system (first-past-the-post), the multi-member plurality, the single transferable vote, the additional member system, and the supplementary vote.
The United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, also known as the UK-wide referendum on the Parliamentary voting system was held on Thursday 5 May 2011 in the United Kingdom (UK) to choose the method of electing MPs at subsequent general elections. It occurred as a provision of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement drawn up in 2010 and also indirectly in the aftermath of the 2009 expenses scandal. It operated under the provisions of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 and was the first national referendum to be held under provisions laid out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.
An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, non-profit organisations and informal organisations. These rules govern all aspects of the voting process: when elections occur, who is allowed to vote, who can stand as a candidate, how ballots are marked and cast, how the ballots are counted, how votes translate into the election outcome, limits on campaign spending, and other factors that can affect the result. Political electoral systems are defined by constitutions and electoral laws, are typically conducted by election commissions, and can use multiple types of elections for different offices.
YES! To Fairer Votes was a political campaign in the United Kingdom whose purpose was to persuade the public to vote in favour of the Alternative Vote (AV) in the referendum on Thursday, 5 May 2011. YES! To Fairer Votes was unsuccessful in changing the voting system, with 32.1% of votes cast in favour. It was opposed by the anti-reform campaign NOtoAV.
Make Votes Matter is a political pressure group based in the United Kingdom which campaigns for replacing the first-past-the-post voting system with one of proportional representation for elections to the British House of Commons.
A referendum on electoral reform took place by mail-in ballot between October 22 and December 7, 2018, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. 61.3 percent of voters supported maintaining the first-past-the-post voting system rather than switching to a proportional representation voting system, which was supported by 38.7 percent of voters. This was British Columbia's third referendum on electoral reform, following ones in 2005 and 2009.
Rural–urban proportional representation (RUP), also called flexible district PR, is a mixed electoral system which combines the use of single- and multi-member constituencies in a lower tier and top-up seats in an upper tier to meet the different needs of both rural and urban areas, while protecting the objective of proportionality. The term was coined by Fair Vote Canada, which devised a rural–urban system with the intention of meeting the special challenges of Canada's geography, which includes wide-flung, sparsely populated areas.
A referendum on electoral reform was held on April 23, 2019, in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island – simultaneously with the 2019 provincial election – to determine if the province should adopt a mixed-member proportional representation voting system (MMP). A narrow majority voted to keep the existing first-past-the-post system. However, the referendum was not binding, as neither the yes or no side received majority support in 60% or more of the province's 27 electoral districts.