This is the eleventh inquiry by the Committee on Standards in Public Life with this particular report reviewing the work of the Electoral Commission. The Commission itself was established as an independent statutory body on 30 November 2000, with a mandate to review or examine such matters as electoral administration, and the conduct of elections and standards of propriety in financing political parties. All these issues have been of recent public concern, and the Committee believes it is important to ask whether the Commission's current mandate, governance arrangements and accountability framework are appropriate for the purpose required of the Commission. The Committee has set out 41 recommendations, including: that the mandate of the Commission should be amended and refocused so that it has two principal statutory duties: (i) as regulator of political party funding and campaign expenditure in the UK; (ii) and as a regulator of electoral administration in Great Britain; further, that is should decentralize responsibility for monitoring and regulating campaign and constituency expenditure in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to regional offices; it should report to Parliament annually on standards of electoral administration; it should have no involvement in electoral boundary matters or have a role in undertaking policy development in relation to electoral legislation; that the Commission should undertake detailed research into the scale of electoral fraud in the UK. The publication is divided into 5 chapters with appendices; Chapter 1: Introduction and context; Chapter 2: Mandate of the Electoral Commission; Chapter 3: Governance of the Electoral Commission; Chapter 4: Accountability of the Electoral Commission; Chapter 5: Integrity of the electoral process

“Wegman combines in-depth historical analysis and insight into contemporary politics to present a cogent argument that the Electoral College violates America’s ‘core democratic principles’ and should be done away with..." —Publishers Weekly The framers of the Constitution battled over it. Lawmakers have tried to amend or abolish it more than 700 times. To this day, millions of voters, and even members of Congress, misunderstand how it works. It deepens our national divide and distorts the core democratic principles of political equality and majority rule. How can we tolerate the Electoral College when every vote does not count the same, and the candidate who gets the most votes can lose? Twice in the last five elections, the Electoral College has overridden the popular vote, calling the integrity of the entire system into question—and creating a false picture of a country divided into bright red and blue blocks when in fact we are purple from coast to coast. Even when the popular-vote winner becomes president, tens of millions of Americans—Republicans and Democrats alike—find that their votes didn't matter. And, with statewide winner-take-all rules, only a handful of battleground states ultimately decide who will become president. Now, as political passions reach a boiling point at the dawn of the 2020 race, the message from the American people is clear: The way we vote for the only official whose job it is to represent all Americans is neither fair nor just. Major reform is needed—now. Isn't it time to let the people pick the president? In this thoroughly researched and engaging call to arms, Supreme Court journalist and New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman draws upon the history of the founding era, as well as information gleaned from campaign managers, field directors, and other officials from twenty-first-century Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, to make a powerful case for abolishing the antiquated and antidemocratic Electoral College. In Let the People Pick the President he shows how we can at long last make every vote in the United States count—and restore belief in our democratic system.

Behind the deeply contentious 2020 election stands a real story of a broken election process. Election fraud that alters election outcomes and dilutes legitimate votes occurs all too often, as is the bungling of election bureaucrats. Our election process is full of vulnerabilities that can be — and are — taken advantage of, raising questions about, and damaging public confidence in, the legitimacy of the outcome of elections. This book explores the reality of the fraud and bureaucratic errors and mistakes that should concern all Americans and offers recommendations and solutions to fix those problems.

As the constitutional body that conducts elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has emerged as a trusted institution within the shared space of democracy in India. This process has, however, been a fraught one because of contestation over the ECI’s constitutional responsibility and the power of Parliament to make laws to govern electoral matters. This comprehensive monograph discusses the history of the ECI through a study of the measures it has adopted to ensure certainty of procedures in order to maintain the democratic uncertainty of electoral outcome. In this context, innovations such as the Model Code of Conduct have enhanced the rule-making powers of the ECI. Going beyond the ECI’s design and performance framework, Singh and Roy argue that changes in the nature of electoral contests and domination of political regimes have made the task of preserving electoral integrity and assuring its deliberative content a challenging one.

During the 2016 presidential election, America's election infrastructure was targeted by actors sponsored by the Russian government. Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy examines the challenges arising out of the 2016 federal election, assesses current technology and standards for voting, and recommends steps that the federal government, state and local governments, election administrators, and vendors of voting technology should take to improve the security of election infrastructure. In doing so, the report provides a vision of voting that is more secure, accessible, reliable, and verifiable.