2025/04/02 by Kenn Rushworth, Maria Sobolewska · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Policy Transfer and Learning
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/pa/gsaf031
openalex publication_date 2025/04/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Abstract Electoral registration in the UK is often critiqued for making it hard for voters to participate in elections. However, without a tool for a systematic, international comparison, we cannot know if the UK’s system is unusually difficult. To tackle this issue, we make a methodological contribution to the comparative international study of electoral registration. Using four criteria of difficulty, we create an index of difficulty of registration by adapting an American scheme [Jansa, J. M., Motta, M. and Herrick, R. (2021) ‘Finding DORI: Using Item Response Theory to Measure Difficulty of Registration in the U.S. and its Impact on Voters’, American Politics Research, 50: 336–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X211055050] and use it to code sixty-two countries. Subsequently, we find that the UK has a difficult registration process in comparison to other democracies. We also show that even without implementing automatic registration, there are ways to improve the ease of registration.