Canada: Marc Mayrand urges modernization of Canada’s outdated electoral process | The Globe and Mail

Canada’s outdated way of conducting federal elections has reached a tipping point and must be modernized to meet the needs and expectations of voters, says the chief electoral officer. The Canada Elections Act is based on how elections were conducted in the 19th century, when communication with the regions was limited, oversight was minimal and election administration was local, Marc Mayrand told a news conference Wednesday. “It is a process that is entirely manual, rigid and slow.” In last fall’s election, Mayrand said long lineups at advance polls were the result “of unduly rigid and cumbersome procedures,” frustrating Canadians who expect the voting process to “align with their lifestyles and personal or family situations.” “I strongly believe that federal election administration has reached a tipping point and that action is required now to ensure we can meet electors’ changing needs and expectations.”

Australia: Greens call on Labor to support ‘fairer’ method to share six-year Senate terms | The Guardian

The New South Wales Greens senator Lee Rhiannon has warned Labor to abide by fairer Senate rules in the allocation of six and three-year Senate terms following the double dissolution election. “If Labor supports the first-six-elected method rather than the fairer method of a half Senate recount then Labor will be helping the Coalition boost their Senate numbers at the next election,” Rhiannon said. “The main reason for is that under a recount method [Justice party’s] Derryn Hinch wins a long-term Senate seat at the expense of a Liberal senator.” At issue is how long senators have before they face the next election. Senators are elected on six-year terms but only half the Senate faces an election at the end of every three-year House of Representatives term. Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to call a double-dissolution election means the Senate needs to determine which senators are on a three-year term and which are on a six-year term, in order to fall back into the usual election pattern.

Canada: Studies show few differences among voting systems | iPolitics

Though the special committee on electoral reform will make recommendations on a number of subjects — online and mandatory voting among them — it’s the decision on whether to switch to a proportional voting system that’s paramount, Université de Montréal political science professor André Blais told the committee Wednesday. “I will argue that the most important decision you have to make is whether to adopt some form of PR or not,” Blais told members. Reluctant to state his personal preference, Blais instead used his committee appearance to present the results of his extensive empirical research comparing outcomes under proportional and majoritarian systems, such as single member plurality or first-past-the-post system currently used in Canada. More specifically, he described the results of four studies he did with other researchers and gave the committee five conclusions they could apply in their deliberations. The studies controlled for a number of factors, but Blais stressed there’s no causal certainty and that that they didn’t look at specific systems.

Canada: Referendum on electoral reform would be fraught with complications |CBC

Britain’s referendum five years ago on electoral reform was, in the words of one learned observer, “rich on demagoguery and unsubstantiated claims with no empirical foundation.” Another called it “disgraceful.” Opponents of adopting the alternative vote (AV) method proposed for Britain claimed the new system would cost more and thus leave less money for things like health care: “She needs a new cardiac facility NOT an alternative voting system,” was the tagline of an advertisement that featured the picture of a newborn infant. An ad by the Yes side suggested the current system made MPs lazy. And after a Conservative critic suggested AV would force governments to negotiate with extremist fringe parties, a Liberal-Democrat proponent accused the No side of participating in a “Goebbels-like campaign.” Turnout for the referendum, which the No side won convincingly, was 42 per cent, more than 20 points lower than in the United Kingdom’s general elections in 2010 and 2015.

Australia: High court rejects Bob Day appeal and finds Senate voting changes are legal | The Guardian

The high court has unanimously rejected Senator Bob Day’s challenge of Senate voting changes, finding they do not infringe the constitution. The challenge was heard on 2 May and disposed of on Friday, clearing the way for the 2 July election using the new voting system. In a joint judgment, the justices noted that many of Day’s arguments challenged above the line and below the line voting, which had existed since 1983. They said the challenge did not show voters were disenfranchised and “was in truth an argument about the consequences of elector choice” in harming minor parties. The Senate voting changes require voters to vote one to six above the line, or number one to 12 preferences below the line. However, if a voter simply votes one above the line, the vote will still be valid. The vote will be exhausted if candidates in that column are eliminated from the count.

Canada: Liberals move on electoral reform as deadline looms | Toronto Star

The Liberals have set aside less than seven months to consult Canadians on a brand new voting system. A notice posted online late Tuesday proposes striking a special electoral reform committee — where the Liberals would hold a majority — to hold consultations over the next several months. The committee would have to report back to the House of Commons no later than Dec. 1. The Liberals promised to recommend new legislation by May 2017, but Elections Canada has warned the clock is ticking to have a new system in place by 2019. “(The committee will) identify and conduct a study of viable alternative voting systems, such as preferential ballots and proportional representation, to replace the first-past-the-post system, as well as to examine mandatory voting and online voting,” a notice posted online Tuesday reads.

Bulgaria: Ruling parties to hold more talks on election law changes | The Sofia Globe

Representatives of organisations of Bulgarians abroad emerged from May 5 talks with Prime Minister Boiko Borissov saying that they had his support for their objections to amendments recently approved by Parliament that would trim back polling stations outside the country. Bulgarians abroad, through organisations and on social networks, have petitioned President Rossen Plevneliev to veto the changes, approved by the National Assembly in more than one round of rewrites attended by considerable controversy. Changes to tighten the rules on opening polling stations abroad were pushed by the nationalist Patriotic Front, a minority partner in Borissov’s governing coalition.

Bulgaria: Uproar in Parliament over election law changes | The Sofia Globe

The eve of the Orthodox Easter long weekend found Bulgaria’s MPs still in their benches in the National Assembly – unless they were in one of a series of unscheduled adjournments – arguing the toss in the latest day of controversy over amendments to the country’s election laws. The arguments on April 28 involved not only the substance of the amendments but also a row about a report submitted in the name of the legal affairs committee – which irked opposition MPs who said that there could be no such report from the committee because it had not met. Among the issues to be resolved on the final day before the scheduled Easter recess involved voting abroad. An earlier version of the amendments, restricting the opening of polling stations to Bulgaria’s embassies and consulates, has caused discontent not only among several political parties but also among Bulgarians living outside the country.

Bulgaria: Governing coalition backtracks on some controversial election law changes | The Sofia Globe

An April 26 emergency meeting involving Prime Minister Boiko Borissov and representatives of parties in the country’s governing coalition has led to a backtrack on some of the more controversial changes to election law approved by Parliament. Negotiations and debate on revisions to the Electoral Code were continuing in the National Assembly in the afternoon, with the special sitting expected to be extended. The meeting involving Borissov and Roumyana Buchvarova, deputy prime minister in charge of coalition policy, went on for more than two hours on Tuesday morning. After the meeting, it emerged that some clauses in the Electoral Code, approved at second reading on April 21 and 22, would be changed. The fate of Parliament’s decision, taken in response to a proposal by governing coalition minority partner the nationalist Patriotic Front, that polling stations abroad may only be opened at diplomatic missions, remained unclear by mid-afternoon.

Bulgaria: Protests Over New Voting Rules | Balkan Insight

Bulgarian citizens, angered over controversial changes to the electoral code, planned to stage a protest in front of parliament in Sofia on Tuesday. Protesters oppose the introduction of mandatory voting, a ban on opening polling stations outside Bulgarian diplomatic missions abroad as well as the launch of experimental online voting in the presidential elections in October, which they view as hasty. ‘We are warning MPs that… any attempt to technically limit our rights will not pass without consequences,” the organizers said on Facebook. Bulgaria’s parliament gave a green light to mandatory voting on April 21, qualifying it as a “civil duty” following a legislative proposal of the far-right Patriotic Front party.

Editorials: Insufficient electoral reform | The Japan Times

The plan put forward by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition to reform the Lower House electoral system is only a partial step that shelves the fundamental overhaul needed to close the sharp disparity of votes across electoral districts, as proposed by a panel of experts advising the speaker of the chamber, for several more years. The bill to amend the Public Offices Election Law to cut 10 Lower House seats and redraw some electoral districts will likely clear the Diet during its current session on the strength of the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito alliance. But the administration and the coalition still need to explain why voters have to wait longer for the more fundamental reform.

Editorials: How will Canada vote next time? | The Record

Of all the promises Justin Trudeau made before this week’s federal election, the promise to change how Canadians vote may come back to haunt him most. If he ignores it, the Liberal Party leader and soon-to-be-prime minister will be accused of breaking his word. If he keeps it, the majority government he just won may be his last. Trudeau and the Liberals are still celebrating their sweeping victory in Monday’s vote that left them in control of the House of Commons with 184 out of 338 MPs. But in order to carve out that 54 per cent majority in the House of Commons, the Liberals needed only 39.5 per cent of the votes cast. What’s being called a landslide win would look very different if the proportion of votes the Liberals captured translated precisely into the number of seats they hold in Parliament. Were such an electoral system in place, the Liberals would today hold 134 seats in the House of Commons — more than anyone else but far short of the commanding majority they now enjoy. And that, to state the obvious, would mean Trudeau would lead a far more unstable government that would need support from at least one other party to implement even some of the Liberal agenda and would have no guarantee of governing for even two more years, far less four.

Canada: Electoral reform looms for Canada, Justin Trudeau promises | Toronto Star

Big electoral changes loom for Canada. Prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau has promised that Monday’s election would be the final one ever conducted using the traditional first-past-the-post system. That means the “winner-takes-all” way Canadian voters have always elected their MPs will be changed in time for the 2019 federal campaign. “It was one of our commitments that this would be the last election based on this process,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday. “We have much work to do, to consult, to be engaged with Canadians, to study the issue so that upcoming elections are indeed done in a different way,” he said in French. Trudeau made his comments even though his Liberals won 184 seats in the 338-member Commons — or 54.4 per cent — with just 39.5 per cent of the popular vote.

Voting Blogs: £2.6bn: the price of an unfair voting system | openDemocracy

The first past the post electoral system can result in undemocratic and potentially corrupted one-party councils. We need electoral reform for local government in England and Wales. For a long time it’s been clear that Britain’s first past the post voting system is hugely damaging for our democracy. But a new study has just shown that it’s damaging for our finances too – and poses big risks when it comes to corruption. Councils dominated by single parties could be wasting as much as £2.6bn a year through a lack of scrutiny of their procurement processes, according to a University of Cambridge analysis for the Electoral Reform Society.

Argentina: Opposition lawmakers to demand ‘transparency’ from the Electoral Court | MercoPress

While in the northern province of Tucumán, election results remains in the news due to a contentious vote for governor, currently led by the Victory Front’s Juan Manzur in the final recount, opposition politicians are scheduled to meet in the afternoon with Court authorities. … “Proposals for Electoral Transparency 2015” was presented in document form last week during a press conference in the Argentine Congress, according to a statement released by UCR caucus chief Negri.

Canada: Electoral reform back in the spotlight | Toronto Star

The Kiwis do it. So do the Germans and Scots. Now Kelly Carmichael is hopeful that after years of study, debate and political promises, Canada may be on the brink of doing it, too. “It” is electoral reform, putting in place a voting system that ensures the makeup of Parliament better reflects the ballots cast. Indeed, the October election could be the last federal election using the first-past-the-post system as both Liberals and NDP have vowed changes to how Canadians elect their MPs. “I have to say we are pretty hopeful,” said Carmichael, the executive director of Fair Vote Canada, which advocates for electoral reform.

Editorials: How Jimmy Carter Pioneered Electoral Reform | Rick Perlstein/Washington Spectator

James Earl Carter is nearing the end. In an extraordinary press conference last week, the 39th president discussed his impending death from metastasizing liver cancer, with a grace, humor, and wisdom the rest of us can only hope to emulate when our own time comes. Soon will come the eulogies: then, the assessments. Forgive me if I jump the gun with a gust of affection. I’ve been grappling with his 1976 candidacy and presidency for most of my workdays for at least a year now for my next book on Ronald Reagan’s rise to the presidency. I want to loose some thoughts while they are fresh in my mind. … President Carter, concerned that America ranked 21st in voter participation among the world’s democracies, transmitted a package of proposed electoral reforms to Congress. He had studied the problem. Now he was ready to administer a solution. Everyone loved to talk about voter apathy, but the real problem, Carter said, was that “millions of Americans are prevented or discouraged from voting in every election by antiquated and overly restricted voter registration laws”—a fact proven, he pointed out, by record rates of participation in 1976 in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota, where voters were allowed to register on election day. So he proposed that election-day registration be adopted universally, tempering concerns that such measures might increase opportunities for fraud by also proposing five years in prison and a $10,000 fine as penalties for electoral fraud.

Bulgaria: President makes case for national referendum | The Sofia Globe

There is no more powerful tool to increase citizens’ confidence than a referendum, Bulgarian head of state President Rossen Plevneliev told the National Assembly on July 28, making the case for a referendum on three questions on electoral reform proposed for October 25. The proposal is to hold the referendum on the three questions along with scheduled mayoral and municipal elections, the first round of which will be held on the last Sunday in October. Plevneliev has long been campaigning for a referendum on electoral reform, but his proposals were blocked by the previous parliament, at the time of the now-departed ruling axis of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Movement for Rights and Freedoms in 2013 and 2014.

China: Hong Kong’s opposition pan-democrats plot their next move after defeating reform package | South China Morning Post

When a botched ballot magnified an expected defeat of the government’s electoral reform package with just eight votes in favour on Thursday, pan-democratic lawmakers gathered in a victorious mood to pose for a group photograph, enjoying their moment in history – but only very briefly. Soon after they emerged from the Legislative Council chamber, the pan-democrats sounded a prudent note, vowing to continue fighting for true universal suffrage. Granted, their wish to relaunch the reform exercise for the chief executive election may not come true any time soon, as Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has said his administration will put aside the process for the remaining two years of his term.

China: Attitudes on Hong Kong’s electoral reform plan split in the city and on China’s mainland | South China Morning Post

As lawmakers kicked off the debate over the government’s reform package at the Legislative Council yesterday, both Hongkongers and mainlanders appeared split over whether the proposal should be passed. Local residents contacted in person, as well as people on the mainland speaking online or via telephone, expressed a broad range of opinions on the controversial package. While some opposed it as too rigid and undemocratic, others tentatively approved of it as a first step towards democracy. However, none offered full-throated support for Hong Kong’s first proposal to hold an election by “one man, one vote”.

Canada: Wynne urging electoral reforms to limit spending, move elections to spring | Toronto Star

Ontario voters will head to the polls four months earlier than expected under Premier Kathleen Wynne’s new electoral reforms for the next provincial campaign. Wynne will announce sweeping legislation Thursday moving the 2018 fixed election date from October to the spring in order to avoid conflicting with municipal votes and to take advantage of better weather and longer days. At the same time, spending limits on controversial third-party advertising will also finally be imposed after years of unchecked millions of dollars being spent by unions and other groups to sway voters.

Uganda: Opposition Wants Electoral Reforms, Vote Postponed | VoA News

A prominent opposition leader says Ugandans will no longer tolerate rigged elections, after what he says have been years of voter irregularities and polls that are skewed in favor of President Yoweri Museveni and his ruling National Resistance Movement. Kizza Besigye says there is a need for electoral reforms to ensure an equal playing field for opponents of the NRM before elections are held. Uganda is scheduled to hold a general election next year. But opposition and civil society groups have called for a postponement of the poll until the electoral reforms are implemented to ensure transparent, free, fair and credible future elections.

United Kingdom: Five million votes but just two seats. UKIP and Green set to campaign for electoral reform | Yorkshire Post

The Greens and Ukip have formed an unlikely alliance to demand electoral reform after their parties polled almost five million votes between them but won just one seat each. Ukip leader Nigel Farage joined in the criticism, eventually pledging that his party would lead the reform before he discovered this morning that he had failed to oust the Conservatives in the South Thanet seat. He said: “There’ll be lost and lots of Ukip voters out there very angry that they are not going to be represented and I think our system is bust.

China: Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolutionaries Are Slowly Coming Back to the Streets | TIME

A small pro-democracy encampment has started to take shape ahead of a crucial vote on electoral reform. It has been 200 days since tens of thousands of Hong Kongers flooded the city’s streets demanding the right to freely elect their own leader, and 126 days since the police unceremoniously cleared the tent-filled villages after almost three months of occupation. The movement for democracy has largely been relegated to online forums and abstract discussions, but that isn’t the only place it resides. The handful of tents that remained in front of the Central Government Offices even after the Dec. 16 clearance has steadily grown over the past three months. Currently, 146 fabric shelters line the sidewalks of Tim Mei Avenue, where the use of pepper spray and arrest of student protesters on Sept. 27 was the spark that set the movement ablaze. Some have spilled over onto the sidewalks of Harcourt Road, which the protesters knew as Umbrella Square. Some of the most endearing elements of the camp, like an organic garden and a study corner, have been re-created.

Cambodia: MPs charge election commission fraud | Bangkok Post

Cambodia’s parliament Thursday appointed a new election committee in a bid to clean-up polls routinely tainted by allegations of fraud and as part of an agreement between the ruling and opposition parties. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen signs his attendance for the National Assembly meeting in Phnom Penh on April 9, 2015. A year-long political stalemate followed polls in 2013 after the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party refused to join parliament alleging they had been cheated out of winning.

Chile: Electoral reform in Chile: Tie breaker | The Economist

Augusto Pinochet left the scene as Chile’s dictator 25 years ago, but the electoral system he bequeathed has governed politics ever since. Under the country’s unique “binominal” system, each parliamentary constituency has two seats; the winning candidate takes one and in most cases the runner-up takes the other. This has reserved nearly all the seats in parliament for two big coalitions, the centre-left New Majority (to which the president, Michelle Bachelet, belongs) and the centre-right Alliance. The system has brought Chile stability at the expense of diversity. It kept small parties out of parliament unless they joined one of the two big coalitions, and ruled out landslide victories by either side. Moreover, it has tended to over-represent the Alliance at the expense of New Majority. Rural areas, which had supported Pinochet, were given more weight than their populations warranted.

Chile: Voting system to be reformed to increase women in Congress | Reuters

Chile looks set to make major changes to its electoral system so it will better represent voters’ wishes and ensure more women participate in politics, an issue close to the heart of center-left President Michelle Bachelet. After an all-night debate, the Senate on Wednesday morning gave the green light to Bachelet’s electoral reform bill, with the support of two opposition senators. The bill is expected to easily pass in the lower house and then be signed into law. The vote overturns a byzantine electoral system introduced by dictator Augusto Pinochet before he departed from power that has effectively excluded parties that do no belong to one of two leading coalitions and prevented either coalition from winning a significant majority in Congress. Pinochet, who ruled the South American country from 1973-1990, intended to ensure conservative parties retained a strong voice after the return to democracy.

Liberia: Outgoing Senate Leader Sees Need for Electoral Reform | Sierra Leone Times

The outgoing Liberian Senate Pro Tempore said that while there were some flaws in the December 20 special senatorial election, Liberians must respect and improve on their electoral process. Senator Gbehzongar Findley of Grand Bassa County lost his seat to Jonathan Kaipay of the opposition Liberty Party. Elections Commission Chair Jerome Korkoya announced the final results Saturday. It appears the ruling Unity Party will have won seven or eight Senate seats when the legislative body reconvenes next month.

China: Ruling On Hong Kong Election Brings The City Closer To A Mass Occupation | Associated Press

China’s legislature on Sunday ruled out allowing open nominations in the inaugural election for Hong Kong’s leader, saying they would create a “chaotic society.” Democracy activists in the Asian financial hub responded by saying that a long-threatened mass occupation of the heart of the city “will definitely happen.” In setting tight limits on how far electoral reforms can go in Hong Kong, Beijing issued its firmest reminder yet that it’s still in charge despite the substantial autonomy it promised the city after taking control from Britain in 1997. The guidelines laid down by China’s communist leaders ratchet up the potential for a showdown pitting Beijing against Hong Kong democracy supporters, a group that represents a broad swath of society, including students, religious leaders and financial workers. The decision by the legislature’s powerful Standing Committee sharpens fears that China wants to screen candidates for loyalty to the central government and is reneging on its promise to let Hong Kong’s leader be directly elected by voters, rather than the current committee of mostly pro-Beijing tycoons.

Editorials: What if Alabama elected multiple congressmen per district? A radical reform proposal | Brendan Kirby/AL.com

No one would dispute that Alabama is a Republican-leaning state, but an electoral reform group contends the current voting system distorts GOP dominance. Presently, six of seven members of the U.S. House of Representatives are Republican. But the state is not 85 percent Republican. The Maryland-based Center for Voting and Democracy, in an analysis of the upcoming 2014 election issued last month, puts the Republican percentage at 63 percent. In “Monopoly Politics 2014 and the Fair Voting Solution,” the center details how gerrymandered districts and winner-take-all elections have reduced the number of competitive districts across the country to a handful. The group also argues that the system encourages polarization and increases the number of voters with virtually no chance of electing representatives of their choice. “In contrast, fair representation voting systems provide nearly everyone with a real chance to elect a preferred candidate in every election and make it likely that large groups of like-minded voters (those who vote for similar candidates) will win seats in proportion to their share of the vote,” the report states.