Books Rallings, C., & Thrasher, M. (2016). Local elections handbook 2016. Plymouth: The Elections Centre. Rallings, C., & Thrasher, M. (2015). Local elections handbook 2015. Plymouth: The Elections Centre. Rallings, C., & Thrasher, M. (2014). Local elections handbook 2014. Plymouth: The Elections Centre. Rallings, C., & Thrasher, M. (2013). Local elections handbook 2013. Plymouth: The […]
Recent conference papers/presentations and links to videos posted online. Thrasher, M., Borisyuk, G., Rallings, C., Carr, H., & Turner, M. (2016). Estimating local authority level distributions of referendum voting using aggregate and survey-level data. Paper presented at the Elections, Public Opinion and Parties Annual Conference, University of Kent. Rallings, C., M. Thrasher, G. Borisyuk and M. […]
There are two types of publication covering local election results. Local authority election results for individual authorities are available to download. These contain the results for each ward at each election for 400 plus local authorities. Results are organised according to type of authority, for example, London boroughs, English counties or unitary councils. Various changes […]
Party chairman Grant Shapps braced to lose 500 seats, with one cabinet member saying ‘terrible will be a great result’ – Article for The Guardian by Patrick Wintour – 1st April 2013
Rallings and Thrasher have co-authored various books including, British Electoral Facts, Media Guides to the New Parliamentary Constituencies and the annual Local Elections Handbook, now in its 33rd edition. They are also Series Editors for the Historical Local Election Handbooks Research papers, often involving other collaborators, are published in the academic journals or are available as conference […]
In the introduction to the 2010 Candidate Survey Report, Pascoe Sawyers commented that… This is the first survey of candidates that contested a local election on the same day that a general election was held. There is criticism that combining elections in this way devalues the local democratic process but while candidates recognised that […]
This survey offers a glimpse of the problems that political parties and organisations face as they seek to broaden the social base of local councils by encouraging more women, younger people and more people from Black, Asian and other ethnic minority groups to see themselves as candidates for local election. Although about a half of candidates support the […]
In response to the findings of the Councillors Commission report in December 2007, the 2008 survey highlighted two challenges – how to ensure greater councillor diversity and retain good councillors. In his foreword to the Survey Report Pascoe Sawyers commented… The empirical evidence of these findings speak for themselves and should act as […]
One of the primary objectives of the 2007 candidate survey was to measure the nature and level of support among candidates for measures designed to broaden the social base of elected councillors. Local councils are sometimes criticised for being dominated by white, middle-aged, retired men. The survey explored the reasons for under-recruitment amongst women, younger people, as […]
This presentation considers electoral bias, the factors that contribute towards that bias and examines in detail the 2010 UK general election. Bias can be decomposed into different elements, three of which are examined in detail in this presentation. First, there is bias caused by unequal electorates or “malapportionment”. Second, bias caused by differences in turnout […]