It's rather timely that Professor Chris Budd, a regular participant in INI Research Programmes & helpful advisor to the Newton Gateway to Mathematics is speaking on maths and voting at an upcoming Gresham College lecture on 12th November as part of the Mathematics in the 21st Century Series. 

"We live in a democracy in which we all have a chance to vote. But does voting mean that the views of the majority are truly represented when it can be shown (mathematically) that all voting systems have flaws? 

In this talk Chris uses mathematics to look at these flaws and answer associated questions (eg. voting trends and gerrymandering). For a bit of light relief Chris will see how the same principles work in the Eurovision Song Contest."

More information is on the event webpage.