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Research Topic: A testing ground for parliamentary elections: English and Welsh school board elections 1870-1902
The 1870 Elementary Education Act created a network of school boards, whose members were elected by the cumulative vote. This method gave each individual voter as many votes as there were seats on a school board, in some cases up to 15 votes. It also allowed individuals to cast multiple votes in any way they saw fit, including casting all of their votes for a single candidate, a process known as ‘plumping’.
The system led to the election of minority candidates and particularly favoured organised minorities. Cumulative vote elections endured for over 30 years until the abolition of school boards under the 1902 Education Act.
I am interested in innovations tested in the school board elections; how the peculiarities of the cumulative voting system, as applied to school board elections over their 32-year lifespan, relate to the broader development of electoral politics in Britain; how major players – women, working-class candidates, early Independent Labour Party candidates, religious minorities (and the Church establishment itself) harnessed the cumulative vote to advance; and the legacy of the voting system. My research draws on over 2,500 school board election results to identify patterns and themes, further explored against contemporary newspaper reporting and parliamentary records.