Electoral Management in Britain
Toby S James2014, in Pippa Norris et al. (eds) Advancing Electoral Integrity
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Abstract
Understanding the causes, consequences, and remedies for defects in the practice of elections is being subjected to renewed scrutiny. Considerable attention has focused on how elections are subverted by elites seeking to maintain power. Scholars have established a comprehensive menu of manipulation including electoral violence, vote buying, and maintaining favorable electoral laws. 1 This has been conceptualized as electoral malpractice 2 or as undermining international standards of electoral integrity. 3 Not all flaws in elections are the direct result of the partisan activity of elites and their agents, however. In Electoral Malpractice, Birch notes that systems of electoral administration can be prone to 'electoral mispractice'-"incompetence, lack of resources, unforeseen disturbances, and simple human error" 4 -but then focuses on the deliberate "manipulation of electoral processes and outcomes. " 5 Elsewhere, Norris notes that elections can be plagued by 'electoral maladministration': "routine flaws and unintended mishaps by election officials . . . due to managerial failures, inefficiency and incompetence. " 6 These problems can affect voter confidence and threaten democratic consolidation. However, previous accounts have not offered sufficient conceptual disaggregation or empirical research to help establish the types, causes, and potential remedies for such problems.
Key takeaways
- An evaluation of the Canadian 2011 federal elections found that election officers, on average, made more than 500 serious administrative errors per electoral district on election day.
- A second type of failure, a failure of rowing in electoral management, is therefore defined as an error in the implementation of practices and strategies that results in suboptimal organizational performance in the management of elections.
- Systems of electoral management have often been categorized into those where the government runs elections, a body independent of government runs elections, or there is a mixed approach.
- What challenges do electoral administrators face in the implementation of elections today?
- No electoral identification is required at either the polling or registration stage of the election.
