| Type | Non-governmental organization |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1884 London, United Kingdom |
| Location | London, Cardiff, Glasgow |
| Key people |
|
| Area served | UKwide |
| Focus | Democracy, Electoral Reform, Elections |
| Method | lobbying, research, innovation |
| Website | electoral-reform.org.uk |
The Electoral Reform Society is a political pressure group based in the United Kingdom which promotes electoral reform. It is believed to be the oldest organisation concerned with electoral systems in the world.
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Since its formation, the Society has promoted the use of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) in general elections. It also has many influences around the world in concern with electoral reformation. The mission of the society is to secure an electoral system in Britain which it believes will:
The ERS was founded in January 1884 as the Proportional Representation Society by the Victorian naturalist, archaeologist and polymath John Lubbock. The founding members included academics, barristers, and an equal number of Conservative and Liberal MPs. Famous early members included Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Caroll), C.P. Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian and Thomas Hare, the inventor of STV.
The Society campaigned for the introduction of STV until 1888. It then became inactive until 1904. It resumed campaigning for STV, succeeding in getting it introduced in local elections in Ireland, and in numerous religious, educational and professional organisations.
After World War II the Society suffered from financial problems and a lack of public interest in electoral reform. It was kept going for many decades by its Director, Enid Lakeman, an inveterate pamphleteer, public speaker and writer of letters to newspapers about STV. When Fianna Fáil twice (1959 and 1968) put to a referendum a proposal to abolish STV in Ireland and revert to first-past-the-post, Lakeman led a successful ERS campaign to keep STV there.[1] In 1973 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 train returning officers in the new techniques and raise public awareness in the Province of the implications of the newly introduced voting method.[2]
Interest in proportional representation revived sharply in Britain in 1974, and from then on the Society was able to secure a higher public profile for its campaign.
In 1983 the Society was recognised by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as a Non-Governmental Organisation with Consultative Status.
The Society has campaigned successfully for the introduction of STV for local elections in Scotland [3] and led the call for a referendum on the voting system in the wake of the expenses crisis as part of the Vote for a Change campaign.[4]
The Society was later a principal funder of the YES! to Fairer Votes campaign in its unsuccessful bid for a Yes vote in the 2011 referendum [5] on the Alternative Vote, its Chief Executive Katie Ghose serving as the campaign's chair.
Chief Executive Katie Ghose
Chair John Ault
President Bishop Colin Buchanan
Vice Presidents Lesley Abdela, Lord Avebury, Sir Hugh Beach, Bernard Black, Jean Bradshaw, Vernon Bogdanor, Sir Fred Catherwood, Sir Adrian Cadbury, Rt Rev Peter Dawes, Winifred Ewing, Baroness Falkender, Baroness Gould, David Marquand, Sir Oliver Napier, Jonathon Porritt, Margaret Rose, Lord Rosser, Michael Steed, Jeremy Thorpe, Gervase Tinley
The Society has three closely related organisations: