Elections

Collection
Standard
Focussing on recent Australian Federal elections, this Collection hosts published policies by registered political parties as well as relevant content by the Australian Electoral Commission, Parliament and other statutory bodies. It also includes election-focussed position papers, submissions and policy proposals from think tanks, not for...
Report

Trends in Australian political opinion: results from the Australian Election Study, 1987-2022

The Australian Election Study (AES) provides the most sophisticated and comprehensive source of evidence ever collected on political attitudes and behaviour in Australia. This monograph presents the long-term trends over time in voter attitudes and behaviour in Australia. Situating the 2022 election in historical context...
Report

Digital campaigning and political finance in the Asia and the Pacific region

Drawing on insights from Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan and Kyrgyzstan, this report connects the global decline of democracies to digital disruption and calls for strengthened regulatory frameworks along with its enforcement to prevent monied interests and hidden actors from influencing the outcome of democratic elections.
Strategy

Our regulatory approach

The VEC's role is to ensure all Victorians actively participate in their democracy and to deliver high quality, accessible electoral services with innovation, integrity and independence. This statement aims to provide transparency and predictability in the Commission's compliance responses.
Report

Next-generation technology and electoral democracy: understanding the changing environment

Using case studies from experts in fields such as computer science, law and public policy, this special report offers recommendations to guide policy-makers and stakeholders on how to protect elections from next-generation technologies and the threats they pose to democracy.
Policy report

Facebook still approving ads with explicit disinformation as election campaigning ramps up

Disinformation has fundamentally altered the functioning of our public square and our democracy. Increasingly, fair and factual debate is a rarity. The experiment outlined in this report sought to test Facebook’s ad review system by attempting to approve advertisements that explicitly promoted election disinformation narratives...
Discussion paper

Identifying the problem: voter ID laws a solution in search of a problem

This discussion paper argues that voter ID will increase administrative complexity and cost, lead to longer queues at polling booths, and act as a further deterrent to an electorate already showing signs of disengagement with the political process.
Report

Report of the Inquiry into the impact of social media on Victorian elections and Victoria’s electoral administration

The approach recommended in this report will need to be regularly reviewed to ensure that it is effective and appropriate. Government funding for research into the impact of social media on elections would assist future policy reviews, as would several of the transparency measures recommended...
Working paper

Understanding the origins of populist political parties and the role of external shocks

This research uses New Zealand electoral survey data to examine the impact two large external shocks had on the development of New Zealand First, one of the oldest populist political parties in the OECD.
Briefing paper

Bridging Papua New Guinea’s information divide

In the lead-up to the 2022 national election, Papua New Guinea must address its information gap by investing in the public broadcaster, writes Lowy Institute's Media and Communications Manager, Shane McLeod.
Report

Report of the Inquiry on the future conduct of elections operating during times of emergency situations

This inquiry provided the committee with an opportunity to examine Australia’s electoral preparedness during challenging circumstances, and whether there is flexibility within the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Electoral Act) to adapt to these challenges.
Working paper

Foreign interference and Australian electoral security in the digital era

Digitisation of elections in Australia induces new vulnerabilities that malign foreign entities can exploit to subvert our democratic sovereignty. Despite this threat landscape, according to this paper, Australia’s digital-analogue hybridity safeguards federal elections from hard cyber security risks that might seek to directly tamper with...
Policy report

Elections during crisis: global lessons from the Asia-Pacific

During 2020 states the world over learned just how challenging it can be to organise full, free, and fair elections in the middle of a pandemic. This paper provides an overview of lessons from the Asia-Pacific region, which highlight innovations and emerging good practice, as...
Report

Electorate voting patterns, preliminary results 2020

This document provides tables of candidate and party vote percentages by electorate (based on the total votes counted) and organised broadly north to south in geographical terms. The election night totals may be affected by special votes, including overseas, comprising some 17% of all votes...
Report

Red book, Blue book: an Australian guide to the next US administration

This publication is designed in two sections: Blue Book — what to expect in a Biden administration and Red Book — what to expect in a second term of the Trump administration. Each section is designed to give a robust guide to the major policies...
Policy report

Closest to the people: local government democracy and decision-making in disaster

This policy brief argues that the onset of the pandemic has again demonstrated the resilience and adaptability of local government. In particular regarding its capability to deliver routine and emergency services to communities at this time of particular need.
Survey

Election 2020: Voters are highly engaged, but nearly half expect to have difficulties voting

As Democrats and Republicans prepare for their party conventions, this national survey finds high voter engagement with the presidential campaign – and a record share saying it “really matters” who wins in November when it comes to making progress on important national issues.
Report

Russia

This document is the result of a major inquiry into threat that Russia poses to the United Kingdom (Cyber; Disinformation and Influence; and Russian Expatriates). The investigation included a number of evidence sessions with a broad range of witnesses over the course of eight months...
Report

Lessons in resilience: Canada's digital media ecosystem and the 2019 election

Researchers, policy-makers and the public at large are paying more attention to the threats that disinformation and other forms of online media manipulation pose to democratic institutions and political life. Coming after a number of international elections where disinformation was a serious problem, the authors...
Discussion paper

Discussion paper: Disclosure standards for election and political polling in Australia

This is an initial discussion paper issued by the Inquiry Panel formed by the Association of Market and Social Research Organisations (AMSRO) in collaboration with the Statistical Society of Australia (SSA), to review the performance of the opinion polls at the 2019 Australian federal election.
Report

Interim report on all aspects of the conduct of the 2019 federal election and matters related thereto

The International Grand Committee is an example of countries coming together to share, learn and ultimately create change for the better. The recommendations of this report are just the beginning of tackling the threat of foreign interference and disinformation.
Working paper

Electoral management under COVID-19

This paper finds that election administrators seeking to plan their activities against the background of COVID-19 will be confronted with uncertainty on a grand scale, making their task more akin to preparing for elections in insecure places such as Iraq or Afghanistan than getting ready...
Report

The untold story of American non-voters

This report is a summary of what has been learned through interviews, both quantitative and qualitative, with more than 14,000 voting-eligible Americans. The result is multilevel snapshot of non-voting America one year out from the 2020 presidential election.
Report

The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry report

This report reflects the evidence gathered thus far by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in coordination with the Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Committee on Foreign Affairs, as part of the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry into Donald J. Trump, the...
Working paper

Engaging youth - strategies for creating interested and informed voters

This paper reports on what young people themselves believe their democratic responsibility is and what their level of engagement should be. It argues that their testimony provides an important insight and crucial information that will be of use not just to academics but also to...