In March 2020, I was invited to give in person evidence to the Senedd Cymru committee on electoral reform during its fact-finding mission to Edinburgh. The Committee were particularly interested in the operation of the single transferable vote (STV) in Scottish local elections, something I have done a considerable amount of research on.

STV has become an important electoral system in the Welsh context. An expert committee recommended its use for Senedd elections as the institution sought to expand and reform. Local councils in Wales are also being given the opportunity to replace the first-past-the-post electoral system with STV in the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Bill 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic meant that the in-person evidence session was unfortunately cancelled. However, I was invited to submit written evidence. This has just been published and can be found here. It summarises the research I have undertaken into STV in the 2007 and 2012 rounds of local elections, and extends that to the 2017 round. It examines some of the Scottish criticisms of STV, as well as providing evidence that Scottish voters have used their preferential STV ballot in a manner that might be expected from voters with a longer history of using the system.

Alistair Clark, 16th June 2020