The Spill-over and Displacement Effects of Implementing Election Administration Reforms: Introducing Individual Electoral Registration in Britain

James, Toby ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5826-5461 (2014) The Spill-over and Displacement Effects of Implementing Election Administration Reforms: Introducing Individual Electoral Registration in Britain. Parliamentary Affairs, 67 (2). pp. 281-305. ISSN 1460-2482

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Abstract

The UK government intends to replace household electoral registration with individual electoral registration (IER). This article assesses the likely effects of the reform using an innovative methodology. A thematic analysis of extensive qualitative interviews with local election officials, conceived as ‘street-level bureaucrats’ responsible for implementing elections, was undertaken. Their local knowledge provides evidence that IER might improve the security of the registration process. However, it is likely to lead to a considerable decline in levels of electoral registration which might be highest amongst the young, elderly and minority populations; is a more resource-intensive method of compiling the electoral register; will pose new issues with data and technology for election officials; and, is likely to have a number of further ‘spill-over’ effects on other aspects of election administration, such as the cutting of other services. The article encourages further research using the local knowledge of street-level bureaucrats to examine the ‘back-office’ effects of election administration reforms since they may further our understanding of the complexities and unintended consequences of institutional reforms which might be overlooked in quantitative studies.

Item Type: Article
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Political, Social and International Studies (former - to 2014)
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Policy & Politics
Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Political, Social and International Studies
Depositing User: Katherine Humphries
Date Deposited: 17 Sep 2012 12:40
Last Modified: 21 Jul 2023 09:19
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/39561
DOI: 10.1093/pa/gss032

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