Democratic Audit

Lewis Baston has been Senior Research Fellow at Democratic Audit since July 2010. His principal areas of expertise are electoral systems, constitutional reform, the history of elections, boundaries and redistricting and devolution. Before joining Democratic Audit Lewis was Director of Research at the Electoral Reform Society and had worked at ERS since 2003. From 1998 to 2002 he was a research fellow at the Centre for the Understanding of Society and Politics (CUSP) at Kingston University. His work for Democratic Audit in 2010 has involved three research reports (one with Stuart Wilks-Heeg on reducing the number of MPs, one on 'equalising’ constituency size and one modelling new boundaries using the government’s proposed rules).

Lewis has appeared as an expert witness at the Speaker’s Conference on parliamentary representation and the Welsh Affairs Select Committee and his evidence has also been cited in the report of the Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform. During the 2010 general election, overnight on election night and during the coalition talks period he was a frequent contributor to the Guardian in print and online. As well as the Guardian he has written on electoral matters for Progress, Critical Reaction, LGA Group First, and commented for television and radio programmes. He has addressed gatherings as various as the annual conference of FairVote Canada, the Conservative Candidates’ Association and several constituency Labour Parties.

Publications:

Eastern Approaches: How Labour can win back the East of England (with Bob Blizzard) (forthcoming, 2011)

The 2010 election (Electoral Reform Society, in press)

Guardian tactical voting guide (May 2010, online)

Guardian regional guide to the election (March 2010, online)

Reduce and Equalise and the Governance of Wales (ERS, March 2010)

'No sense of proportion? The Scottish Conservatives and electoral reform’’ (with Martin Steven) Paper for EPOP conference 2009 (CHECK – think published in journal)

County and European elections 2009 (ERS, 2009)

A Better Alternative? What AV would mean for Westminster (ERS, 2008)

The STV local government elections in Scotland May 2007 (ERS, 2008)

Britain’s Experience of Electoral Systems (ERS, 2007)

Reggie: The Life of Reginald Maudling (Sutton, 2004)

Politico’s Guide to the General Election (with Simon Henig) (Politicos 2004, 2000)

The Political Map of Britain (with Simon Henig) (Politico’s, 2002)

Sleaze (Channel 4 Books, 2000)