Ken Ritchie

Kenneth George Hutchison Ritchie (born 8 December 1946) is a British psephologist and former Labour and Co-operative councillor. He was the chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society from 1997 until 26 June 2010, and a member of the board from 2012 to 2019.

Early life and education Kenneth Ritchie was the son of the late William Ritchie and Margaret Morton Ritchie (née Hutchison). He attended George Heriot's School in Edinburgh. He was awarded his PhD in 1981. He was also a member of the ERS board from 2012 to 2019.

Campaigning activities From 1980 to 1985, Ritchie was the honorary treasurer of War on Want. In 1984, he became treasurer of the Western Sahara Campaign, a role he continues to hold. Ritchie was a member of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding from 1989 to 1984. Since 2014, he has been LfaR's secretary. Ritchie also stood for election to the London Borough of Bromley in 1990. As one of the two Labour candidates for Lawrie Park and Kent House, a ward in the Beckenham constituency, Ritchie was the top placed opposition candidate behind the Conservatives, who held both the seats.

At the next general election, in 1997, Ritchie contested Daventry in Northamptonshire. Under Labour's landslide election victory, led by Tony Blair, there was an 11.1% swing to the party in the seat, with Ritchie again taking second place, albeit by the narrowest majority since the constituency's 1974 recreation. The parliamentary constituencies Ritchie contested have generally been safe seats for the incumbent Conservative Party. In March 2012, he was named as one of the two potential Labour candidates who would run to be the first Northamptonshire Police and Crime Commissioner. However, his rival, Lee Barron, was ultimately selected, and the Conservative candidate won the ensuing contest. In May that year, Ritchie was a Labour candidate for Daventry District Council in Abbey North ward in the local elections, but was unsuccessful.

The following year, he was a candidate in Daventry East division on Northamptonshire County Council, but came third. In the 2014 and 2015 Daventry elections, he unsuccessfully stood in Drayton, coming second. Ritchie again contested Abbey North in 2016, and was elected, gaining one of the ward's seats from the Conservatives. He also contested Northamptonshire's Braunston and Crick division in 2017. He represented Abbey North as a Labour and Co-operative councillor until 2021: upon the formation of the new West Northamptonshire local authority, Ritchie was an unsuccessful candidate for Daventry West at their inaugural elections in 2021.

Personal life In 1985, Ritchie married Elizabeth Anne Black. The couple have a son and daughter. Ritchie lists his recreations as golf, music and walking the dog.

In 2006, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Publications

Don't Take No for an Answer: the 2011 referendum and the future of electoral reform (2011, with Lewis Baston) Electoral Systems (2012, contributor) Fixing our Broken Democracy: the case for total representation (2012) The Saharawi Struggle for Self-Determination: a history of the campaign in Britain (2014) Total Representation: an electoral system to resolve Italy's democratic crisis (2014) The Elephant in the House (2015) The Reform Debates: an agenda for a better democracy (2016)