Tag Archives: early voting

Mark Valladares

New pilot schemes aim to make voting easier but…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 27th March 2026 - 12:15 pm

I don’t know about you, but the news that the Government had announced four pilot schemes to make voting “easier and more convenient” during this year’s local elections had rather passed me by.

To quote the release from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government;

In Milton Keynes, voters can have their say in the city’s main shopping centre – Midsummer Place – rather than being restricted to a single designated polling station. This could eventually be rolled out across the country in future elections along high streets and in town centres.

People in Cambridge, Tunbridge Wells and North Hertfordshire

…

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Mark Pack

Early voting: why did we bother spending years (and lots of money) on piloting it?

By Mark Pack | Thu 12th February 2009 - 2:31 pm

For several years, the idea of letting people vote in person ahead of polling day (e.g. at the Town Hall or in a local shopping centre) was tested out in a range of different British elections. Lots of time and money went on the tests, all of which came up with the same answer: it makes almost no difference to turnout, and the money that it takes up could have gone on other measures which would have been just as good, if not better, at raising turnout (e.g. general publicity campaigns reminding pepole to vote).

The pilots themselves went on long …

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