Webinar Recap: Changing Politics – A Shifting Landscape and Election Reform Opportunities on Both Sides of the Pond
Last week, FairVote and the Electoral Reform Society co-hosted a special webinar discussion between our leaders, FairVote CEO Meredith Sumpter and Electoral Reform Society Chief Executive Darren Hughes. During their conversation, Meredith and Darren discussed this year’s elections in the United Kingdom and the United States, what they tell us about the state of democracy in both countries, and the path forward for voting reform on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Electoral Reform Society has advocated for better and fairer elections in the United Kingdom since it was founded in 1884. The organization counted Thomas Hare – who developed the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system, also known as proportional RCV – among its membership. The organization also played a major role alongside the Proportional Representation Society of Ireland in the adoption of STV for elections in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Darren Hughes joined the Electoral Reform Society in 2012 and became its Chief Executive in 2017. Hughes also served as a Member of the New Zealand Parliament from 2008 until 2011, also serving as the Minister of Statistics for part of that time.
Hughes shared his thoughts on the United Kingdom’s most recent general election, which saw the Labour Party win roughly 63% of the seats in the House of Commons despite winning only 34% of the vote. His critiques of that result should sound very familiar to American voters:
What we looked at when the votes came in was that [the 2024 UK General Election] was the most disproportionate election that had ever been held [in the United Kingdom]… I think the takeaway for us was that when people know the system’s not going to work, they end up having to do things that are almost a contortion of democracy. They have to do things like tactical voting… where they vote for the candidate that’s not their favorite, but they’re a better candidate than the one they dislike the most.
– Darren Hughes
Hughes also shared his thoughts on how voters, thought leaders, and media should analyze election outcomes:
Often when there’s an election analysis taking place, people focus and obsess about ‘What does it mean for this candidate? What does it mean for this party?’ Really, what it’s got to be about is the voter. If there’s going to be any bias in any of our systems, it should be a bias in favor of the voter, in favor of the citizen.
– Darren Hughes
Later in the conversation, Sumpter highlighted the recent momentum behind pro-voter reforms like RCV in the United States, and how reform can deliver for voters and empower elected officials to get things done:
There are seven times more Americans who live in jurisdictions where they can rank their ballot today than did in 2016. The reason why is because this election reform works. It’s simple. It’s easy. Once voters use it, they love it. And it delivers what voters want from our democracy. It gives us greater choice, more power, and [more] say over who represents us. It makes our campaigns less toxic, and it ensures that our representatives are accountable to a majority of us.
– Meredith Sumpter
Hughes built on this theme by discussing his experience with proportional representation in New Zealand, and how it improves incentives for candidates and elected officials:
If you know that every single voter in the country counts no matter where they live because of proportional representation, then that alters the mindset [of candidates]. You’re not scurrying around looking to go to just certain areas and talk to certain people. You’re out there mounting a full campaign for the country… There’s now been 10 general elections in New Zealand under proportional representation, and that resulted in five of the elections resulting in a government of the center left party leading it, and five for the center right. So what it’s done is it’s really baked in the notion of fairness, as opposed to the more lopsided results that you see in first-past-the-post.
– Darren Hughes
Finally, Sumpter and Hughes illustrated how ripe the political environment is ripe for voting reform, both in the United States and the United Kingdom:
The market is ripe for electoral reform that incentivizes and empowers our elected leaders again to lead and legislate and govern in the interest of their constituents. And that is something that we will continue to push for and fight for, but it’s also something that’s just wonderful to point to the example of Alaska and other RCV jurisdictions that incentivizes this kind of pragmatic problem-solving and a focus on getting things done rather than being concerned about how you are showing up for a narrow partisan base.
– Meredith Sumpter
We highly recommend checking out the full discussion here!
We want to thank Darren and all our friends at the Electoral Reform Society for joining us for this conversation. Please visit their website to learn more about their efforts across the pond!