John Pullinger, chair of the Electoral Commission and a guest speaker on the Unit’s summer conference panel on Elections and Electoral Reform, sets out four key areas where electoral law is in need of reform, arguing for improved access to registration, increased transparency when it comes to political donations, stronger and simpler electoral regulation, and a modernisation of electoral law.

Elections are at the heart of our constitution, giving people a voice when choices are made about how we are to be governed. They are a mechanism for the people to hold their governments accountable. A key test for a healthy democracy is whether people trust, value, and participate in elections. So how can we ensure that our electoral system remains effective?

An effective electoral system

An effective electoral system starts by putting the voter first. This means ensuring that as many eligible voters as possible are correctly registered, and that the process of voting is both secure and accessible to all.

The electoral system should support candidates, campaigners, and parties to get their message across, free from abuse, intimidation, and threats. It should provide transparency about campaigning activities, so we all know where campaigners’ money comes from and how it is spent.

It also needs to work for electoral administrators, supporting them to run elections effectively and efficiently, so that voters across the country receive the same high standard of service. There must be resilience in the system, so administrators can cope in the face of unexpected pressures.

At its core, it requires a simple and comprehensible canon of law so that everyone understands and can follow the rules without risk of being inadvertently caught out. The law also needs to work effectively in the context of the differences in approach to elections policy between the UK’s governments.

An effective system needs to reflect society as it is today and where it is going, not be stuck in the past. This means getting ahead of the curve on how the use of data and new technology such as AI will affect campaigning at elections. The environmental impact and sustainability of the electoral system is another emerging challenge.

As you might expect, we spend a lot of time thinking about how an electoral commission can support an effective system. Recent debate has shown strong support for a commission’s independent role, providing impartial oversight of the system. All participants in elections should be able to see that a commission is effective, accountable and acts with integrity.

Priorities for change

The current system works. Our research finds consistently high levels of public confidence in elections. But we can’t be complacent. More can be done to modernise our system, increase transparency and broaden participation. We have seen a long-term decline in public confidence in the transparency of party and campaign finance while technological and societal changes have left electoral law looking ever more archaic. A wide range of voices in parliament, the electoral community, and beyond, including the Constitution Unit, have called for bold actions given the mounting challenges facing the system. We see four immediate policy priorities.

1. Improving access to registration and voting

Our research (updated figures are due in the autumn) shows that millions of people in Great Britain are either missing from the register or incorrectly registered, meaning they are unable to have their say. Administrators are struggling to maintain accurate and complete registers, leaving groups such as private renters consistently under-represented. Registration is ripe for modernisation, both by introducing more automated opportunities to register, and by making better use of existing data from public services. For example, voters could be offered the opportunity to update their voter registration at the same time as applying for a passport or driving licence.

More support is also needed for disabled voters and candidates, so that everyone can participate on a level playing field. We have recommended exempting costs associated with a candidate’s disability from spending limits, and called on parties to provide manifestos or policy documents in accessible formats as standard.

2. Increasing transparency of donations and preventing foreign interference

Although the political finance regime in the UK is one of the most transparent in the world, it is clear that having information about who donors are and how much they donate is not enough to ensure public confidence in the system. Reforms are needed to bring political finance regulation in line with the norm for many industries, from estate agents to charities.

Currently, political parties are only required to check that a donor is permissible when accepting a donation. They do not have to find out where the money comes from, or how it has been raised. This means that they lack the tools to decide whether a donation is appropriate. Parties should be required to conduct enhanced checks and risk assessments of donations, similar to anti-money laundering rules in other sectors. To reduce the risk of unlawful foreign money being channelled through UK companies, political parties should not be able to accept donations from companies which exceed the profits they have made in the UK.

3. Strengthening and simplifying political finance regulation

There is significant scope to strengthen and rationalise political finance regulation. The division in responsibilities between the Electoral Commission and the police has led to a clear enforcement gap. While the Commission has powers to apply civil sanctions to parties and campaigners for lower-level breaches, candidate offences can only be pursued by prosecution. Decriminalising minor breaches would allow for more proportionate and effective sanctions, and avoid candidates being put at risk of prosecution for minor offences.

The Committee on Standards in Public Life’s (CSPL) review of political finance regulation called for new powers for the Commission, including the ability to obtain information – for example, from social media platforms – outside a formal investigation. This would allow quicker resolution of issues that arise. To provide a stronger deterrent for parties and campaigners, CSPL has also recommended a significant increase to the maximum civil penalty from the current limit of £20,000.

4. Modernising electoral law

The volume and complexity of electoral law makes running elections more difficult and costly for administrators, and acts as a barrier to change. The Law Commissions have produced a widely supported blueprint for modernisation and reform, which would make the system workable for campaigners and administrators. This could be introduced more quickly using the special parliamentary procedures designed for bills to consolidate existing law.

Alongside this, it is important to reassert in law the principle that an electoral commission should remain independent from governments. The decision to introduce a strategy and policy statement – by which a government can guide an electoral commission’s work – is inconsistent with this independent role.

The electoral system is in a period of change, from the UK government’s Elections Act 2022, and from the distinctive electoral policy agendas of the Scottish and Welsh governments. We are working to support the implementation of these changes, but are keeping one eye on future challenges to the system, from technology and from other developments. We see no better time to get together and work on a cross-party basis to make sure our electoral system is fit for the challenges ahead.

If you are interested in the subject of this post, then the topics of voter ID, the government’s draft strategy and policy statement, and all the recent developments in elections law and policy are discussed in the most recent edition of Monitor, which is free to read and download. You can also watch John’s contribution to the Unit’s summer conference, which took place in late June. He appeared on the Elections and Electoral Reform panel, alongside Professor Sarah Birch, Lord (Robert) Hayward and Cat Smith MP. The full list of panels, with links to video and podcast versions of each section of the conference, is on the Unit website.

About the author

John Pullinger is Chair of the Electoral Commission.

Featured image credit: Ballot boxes arrive at Coventry’s count (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) by Coventry City Council.