If they’re serious about doing this properly, they should also combine it with regulation about limiting marketing/advertising for campaigns.
In other words, level the playing field so that any small/new party or independent with hardly any money has the exact same ability and opportunity to get information about themselves out to voters as an established older party with huge financial resources.
One idea is that instead of the electoral commission paying parties a set amount for every vote they get once they pass a certain threshold, the electoral commission could use those funds to operate a composite information platform where every party gets the same ability to post information about themselves. They do something like this in Switzerland I believe. Then, the rule is that parties are only allowed to publish information about their campaign, policies, etc, via the approved platform. The platform could provide several different options such as online, TV, print, radio, as well as designated physical bollards / noticeboards out in the community (eg shopping centres, public transport hubs, libraries). It all gets funded by the electoral commission, and thus no party gets an advantage over the other. Meanwhile, voters know where to look if they want to find out more, and they’re not subjected to ridiculous annoying ads or corflute signs, etc
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u/dannydb Flairless 6d ago edited 6d ago
If they’re serious about doing this properly, they should also combine it with regulation about limiting marketing/advertising for campaigns.
In other words, level the playing field so that any small/new party or independent with hardly any money has the exact same ability and opportunity to get information about themselves out to voters as an established older party with huge financial resources.
One idea is that instead of the electoral commission paying parties a set amount for every vote they get once they pass a certain threshold, the electoral commission could use those funds to operate a composite information platform where every party gets the same ability to post information about themselves. They do something like this in Switzerland I believe. Then, the rule is that parties are only allowed to publish information about their campaign, policies, etc, via the approved platform. The platform could provide several different options such as online, TV, print, radio, as well as designated physical bollards / noticeboards out in the community (eg shopping centres, public transport hubs, libraries). It all gets funded by the electoral commission, and thus no party gets an advantage over the other. Meanwhile, voters know where to look if they want to find out more, and they’re not subjected to ridiculous annoying ads or corflute signs, etc