Democracy Club Mailing lists

Democracy Club Ballotin: February 2026

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:39:23 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: February 2026

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club

Welcome to the February 2026 edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

Elections bill published

The government’s Representation of the People Bill was published on 12 February, and is due to be debated in the Commons for the first time on 2 March. This will give 16 and 17 year-olds the vote in all UK elections, along with a raft of other reforms (the Association of Electoral Administrators has produced a handy summary). Many of these changes have been welcomed, although there is also widespread consensus that there is room for improvement.

We’re excited about section 49 of the bill, which gives the Electoral Commission and the Secretary of State the power to request information from councils in order to run voter information services. But we’re also concerned that, as written, the bill could produce rigid requirements which cannot be easily adapted if circumstances change. You can read more about this on our blog.

Northern Ireland partnership

We’ve recently completed a programme of work to support the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland (EONI) run a polling station finder and polling district mapping tool. EONI manages all elections across Northern Ireland, and is the largest electoral services team in the UK. We’ve written up this work in a new case study on our blog.

Election leaflets

Election leaflets were unusually prominent in yesterday’s Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election. Professor Rob Ford of Manchester University has written a fascinating round-up of the contest, including a lovely promotion of our own ElectionLeaflets.org. Have you received any election literature in the post recently? Please snap a photo and upload it!

Remembering Mark Longair

Mark Longair, the creator of our candidate crowdsourcing website, died in January. We've decided to dedicate the site to Mark's memory, and Sym has published a tribute on our blog.

Join us in London for SoPN day!

9 April is ‘SoPN day’: the day councils will begin publishing candidate lists (‘Statement of Persons Nominated’) for the English and Welsh elections on 7 May. Democracy Club will be meeting in person at Newspeak House in London for an evening of high-octane political data entry. Anyone is free to come along - simply bring your laptop. We’ll take care of the rest. Interested? Let us know if you’re coming.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: December 2025

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 16:28:31 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: December 2025

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club

Welcome to the December edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

2025 has been a very big year for Democracy Club, one in which we made fantastic progress towards achieving our vision of a country with digital and data foundations to support everyone’s participation in democracy. This newsletter contains some recent updates as usual, plus a review of our year.

The Democracy Network

The Democracy Network is a grouping of organisations and people who work in and around democracy in the UK, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. We’re pleased to announce that Democracy Club and The Politics Project have been chosen by the Network’s steering group as new hosts of the Network. You can read more about this in the Network’s latest bulletin (which we would strongly recommend subscribing to!).

Our board has a new chair

We’re delighted to announce that Torsten de Reise has been appointed the new chair of our board. Torsten will lead on our strategy review and help set our direction as we navigate the handover of some of our services to the Electoral Commission. We’ll have a full update on this and other governance changes in the new year.

Other news

Voter registration pilots

The Electoral Commission has published a report on automatic voter registration pilots in three Welsh council areas; overall these seem to have been a striking success, and point the way to further innovation in the near future. 14,576 new electors were registered, with very high accuracy and very low opt-out rates. Read the report.

Democracy Club’s 2025 in review

We’ve had a fantastic year. Here are some highlights.

The future of the polling station finder

The Electoral Commission confirmed that they would be taking our polling station finder in-house before the next general election. This marked the culmination of ten years’ work, and we’re delighted that this crucial piece of infrastructure will soon be provided directly by the state.

Election leaflets

In March we relaunched our popular database of election leaflets, with an improved upload experience and new filters to make for easy browsing. Have you received some election literature recently? Upload it now.

Parish councils

In January we announced a new project on town and parish councils, in partnership with the National Association of Local Councils. We have so far collected and published the results of the 2024 and 2025 parish council elections, as well as producing an analysis of the role of political parties at this level of government. We’ll be producing another report for the 2026 elections.

Other partnerships

We used our polling station finder to help facilitate Walsall council’s polling district review consultation, and learned a lot along the way!

Our elections results database is now complete back to 2016, thanks to some amazing work from volunteer Jason Leman, a researcher working on localist political parties in the UK.

The 2025 elections

And we did all of this while covering the 2025 local elections as usual, working with the Electoral Commission, BBC News and others, and providing high-quality voter-information in response to 1.5 million requests from the public. Our candidates database (which powers WhoCanIVoteFor) saw more than 30,000 edits. Thanks again to everyone who helped out!

Happy new year

We hope you have a great Christmas, and we'll be back in the new year. The next elections are two by-elections on 15 January - learn more on WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk!

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: October 2025

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 08:45:19 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: October 2025

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club

Welcome to the October edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

When and why do by-elections happen?

By-elections are a core feature of the UK’s political system - you only need to look at the intense media coverage of the Senedd Cymru election in Caerphilly this month to understand that. But why do by-elections happen? Following our latest update, Who Can I Vote For will now give users the reason for each by-election, to help them better understand why they are heading to the polls. Our latest blog introduces this update and takes a look at UK by-elections more generally. Read it now.

Job alert

The UK Electoral Commission is seeking an experienced Product Manager to lead the design, development and delivery of the Commission’s online voter information tool – the first in-house project of its kind. You will oversee a £1.9 million project budget, and work with us at Democracy Club as the Commission takes over the running of our polling station finder! Hurry though, applications close on 2 November (Sunday!). Learn more.

Senedd recall polls

The Welsh Government has published an interesting bill which would allow Senedd members convicted of crimes to be subject to a 'recall poll’ - essentially a referendum on that person. Unlike a UK parliament recall petition this would be a formal poll with two options (recall/retain). As by-elections have been abolished for the new Senedd, removing the member would see them either replaced by the next person on their party's list, or, if an independent, see the seat left vacant until the next election. Learn more about the bill.

The challenges of running modern elections

What do the closure of village halls, the covid pandemic, and the rising cost of postage all have in common? They've all substantially increased the complexity of electoral administration. Laura Lock from the Association of Electoral Administrators sat down with the Local Government Information Unit for a long interview earlier this month, which you can see on the LGIU website.

Do the government’s electoral reforms go far enough?

This was the question asked at a University College London Constitution Unit roundtable on 24 October, Chaired by Professor Alan Renwick. You can listen to it now YouTube.

All Party Parliamentary Groups

On a different note, our friends at mySociety have been doing some fascinating work on All Party Parliamentary Group membership in the UK parliament. APPGs are the clubs MPs can join, focused on particular topics - as varied as countries, cuisines or cause. Julia Cushion breaks it all down on the mySociety blog.

Elections to watch

25 council by-elections are scheduled for the coming month. You can view the full list (and find out why they are happening!) on the front page of Who Can I Vote For?

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

The Ballotin: Democracy Club's newsletter

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 13:43:03 +0000

The Ballotin: Democracy Club's newsletter

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club

Welcome to the September edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

We’re looking for someone to chair our board

Democracy Club is seeking a new Chair for our board of non-executive directors. This is a voluntary role, with the successful candidate expected to serve for at least one term of three years.

Do you have experience chairing committees or boards? Good knowledge of UK politics, civic technology and/or digital service delivery? Want to get stuck in and help us build the future of digital democracy? If so you could be the person we’re looking for!

View the full advert and learn how to apply. Closing date 20 October.

Latest blogs

Summer’s been and gone. What do we have to show for it? In August we published two blogs looking at some of the less-public aspects of our work. The first considered Community Governance Reviews, the tricky-to-track method by which parish councils change their boundaries. This is key to our work because these can sometimes modify other council boundaries - but there isn’t even a comprehensive list of them.

We also published a summary of some work we recently completed for Walsall council. Working with their Electoral Services and GIS teams, we modified our polling station finder to display information about their review of polling stations and districts. Using the tool, the council was able to gather over a hundred responses, many more than they expected. Read the blog.

Scottish parliament and Senedd Cymru elections

Next year’s Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections are now available to view on Who Can I Vote For. Both of these elections will be held on new boundaries. Scotland has had boundary changes to take account of population changes since 2011, while the Senedd Cymru has had a complete change since the last election, with a new electoral system and expanded membership. We’re currently working on improving our postcode lookup to add precise details about these changes for voters in the two nations.

At time of writing we’ve identified 305 prospective candidates for the Scottish Parliament and 132 for the Senedd. You can download the full list from our candidates site (the official candidate lists won’t be published until early April). If you’re a candidate or party campaigner you can sign up for an account and add or edit details yourself.

On the Electoral Commission

Two interesting pieces on the recent history of the Electoral Commission were published this month. Computer Weekly carried an interview with the EC’s Head of Digital, which goes over the ‘cyber incident’ of 2023 in some detail.

Meanwhile, Spotlight on Corruption has published a detailed report on the implications of the 2022 Elections Act, which introduced a new power for the government to set out a ‘strategy and policy statement’ for the EC, which has the potential to seriously limit its independence.

Elections to watch

A by-election for the Senedd constituency of Caerphilly will be held on 23 October. This will likely be the last time First-Past-the-Post is used for a Senedd poll before the electoral system is changed in May. It’s a busy month for council by-elections too, including three seats up on Surrey county council on 16 October. You can see the full list of upcoming by-elections on the front page of Who Can I Vote For.

All the best

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: July 2025

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 13:52:48 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: July 2025

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club

Welcome to the July edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

Election law changes announced by government

Our thoughts on the election strategy

On 17 July the government published their ‘strategy for modern and secure elections’. This promises a wide range of measures, notably votes at 16, an expansion of voter ID to include bank cards, and investigations into automatic voter registration. If you want to read more about these changes and the reactions to them, the House of Commons Library has produced a good summary of the proposals.

Today we’ve published our own thoughts. We’ve focused on two proposals in the strategy: the creation of a voter information platform, and enhanced powers to allow the Electoral Commission to collect more information from councils. Taken together, we think these two suggestions could revolutionise how voter information is produced in the UK, allowing the government to build a real-time database of elections and candidates. Read the blog.

The next combined authority elections

On 10 July the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill was published, announcing the return of the supplementary vote electoral system for mayoral and police and crime commissioners.

A week later came clarification regarding next year’s combined authority elections. Elections in Cumbria and Cheshire and Warrington have been postponed to 2027, meaning that next year will see inaugural elections for four combined authorities: Norfolk and Suffolk, Greater Essex, Sussex and Brighton, and Hampshire and the Solent.

Politics Project launches votes at 16 roadmap

On 16 July Democracy Club attended the launch of the Democracy Classroom Roadmap to Votes at 16, ‘a shared, cross-sector vision for the successful implementation of Votes at 16 across the UK’. We helped create section 5 on improving information support to encourage youth engagement. This includes a recommendation for the government to explore setting up a Voting Advice Application, as is common in other European countries

Parish councils and political parties

Political parties won 12.9% of English town and parish council seats in 2024/2025. But party involvement at this level is controversial. We’ve taken a look at what the data can tell us about partisanship in England's first tier of local government, on our blog.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: May 2025

Thu, 29 May 2025 15:22:14 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: May 2025

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club

Welcome to the April edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

In this month's newsletter:

May local elections report
Electoral Commission senior job role
How does the electoral system need to change before 2029?
Official Elections Act impact report
Upcoming by-elections

May local elections report

The May local elections passed off successfully for Democracy Club. We processed 1.5 million postcode searches during the election week - pretty good considering most of the country didn’t have an election!

We’ve now published our report on our activities during the elections. Some other highlights:

74% user satisfaction on Who Can I Vote For and 88% on Where Do I Vote.
External partnerships provided over 60% of our user traffic during election week.
Relaunched ElectionLeaflets.org.

Enormous thanks to the volunteers, electoral administrators and partners who make our work possible.

Read the full report.

If you want a recap of the local election results, the House of Commons Library have recently published an excellent analysis.

Work with us at the Electoral Commission

Last month we shared the news that the Electoral Commission plans to take our polling station finder in-house before the next general election. The Commission is hiring a new Head of Digital Communications, under whose responsibility this project will fall - the job ad is now live.

How does the electoral system need to change before 2029?

This is the question asked by the Institute for Government in an excellent Q&A panel on 19 May, which opened with remarks from John Pullinger, Chair of the Electoral Commission. You can watch the full recording on their website.

Back to the general election

This time last year we were a week into the general election campaign. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have published a report looking at how the 2022 Elections Act (which introduced voter ID, among other changes) affected the election. You can find it on their website.

Elections to watch

June will be a busy month for by-elections. A Scottish Parliament by-election for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse will be held on the 5th. We’re also aware of 26 council by-elections. You can see the full list on the front page of Who Can I Vote For.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: April 2025

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 14:53:04 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: April 2025

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club

Welcome to the April edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

English local elections are on Thursday

24 councils, six mayors, and an MP are being elected this Thursday, 1 May. Find out if you have an election and view your ballot paper and polling station at WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk.

Most people do not have an election; this is the smallest set of local elections since 1975.

Who’s standing?

Electoral history was made earlier this month, when candidate lists for 1 May were published and it was revealed that Reform UK are standing marginally more candidates than either Labour or the Conservatives. More than 8,600 candidates are standing overall - find out how many are representing each party on our blog.

Parish councils

1,274 parish councils are also up for election this year - though you’ll hear a lot less about them in the news. We’ve collected all the details and crunched the numbers to bring you an exclusive look at England’s ‘first tier’, where 65% of seats have been won without a vote being cast, and a whopping 21% will still be empty after May, because no candidates emerged to fight for them. Read the full release now.

The Electoral Commission and the polling station finder

Very big news for Democracy Club earlier this month, when the Electoral Commission published its corporate plan for 2025-2029. Front and centre was a proposal to take our polling station finder in-house over the next five years. We founded the finder over a decade ago, and the Electoral Commission has been involved in this project almost from the very start. We now believe that as well as offering long term sustainability, the Commission is in a better place than us to make improvements to the service. Read our statement and find out more about the plan.

Want more local election analysis?

Of course you do. In-depth local election previews have been published by the Local Government Information Unit and the Institute for Government. Both cite our data!

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: March 2025

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 15:04:03 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: March 2025

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club

Welcome to the March 2025 edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

We’re well into the local election campaign period now, with candidate lists due to be published on 2 April.

1 May local elections

Local elections are scheduled to take place in some areas of England on 1 May. 1,657 councillors are due to be elected, across 1,406 wards in 24 councils. There will also be six mayoral elections, including four ‘metro mayors’ and two local authority mayors. Nine councils have had their elections postponed ahead of proposed reorganisation. Read a full summary (with maps!) on our blog.

But that’s not all! There are 91 additional English council by-elections taking place on 1 May, with 93 seats up for grabs. This takes the total number of councillors elected on 1 May to 1,748. Of these 91 by-elections, 13 are for vacancies in councils which have had their scheduled elections postponed.

There will also be elections to 1,274 English town and parish councils (11,863 councillors). We do not cover these councils in our lookup, but will be publishing a summary of the results after May.

The election timetable

Candidate lists will be published after 4pm on 2 April, and we’ll have these all on WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk by the end of the week. Voter registration deadline is 11 April, and postal vote application deadline is 14 April.

Are you standing?

Are you a candidate or helping someone else to campaign? WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk offers a free profile for every candidate to put their case to the electorate. All you need to do to edit the database is sign up for an account using an email address. You can then add or edit your own profile, or those of other candidates from your party. Instructions on how to update your profile can be found here: https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/standing/

Volunteer for democracy

Anyone can add information to our election candidate database, which serves nonpartisan information to hundreds of thousands of voters every year. Details on using the site can be found on the volunteer page. Log in on the evening of 2 April to help check and publish candidate lists - a link on the front page will guide you through the process.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: February 2025

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 13:55:56 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: February 2025

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club

Welcome to the (slightly delayed) February edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

Election Leaflets

As mentioned in our last email, we’ve relaunched our database of election leaflets, which now contains over 20,000 individual leaflets. Election leaflets account for one third of all election spending by political parties, and we want to track what they’re spending it all on! Read the blog.

Would you believe we’ve been doing this for a decade?

Earlier this month our polling station finder, WhereDoIVote, turned ten. We’ve gone from a standing start in 2015 to partner with every single UK local authority, running a service which is used by millions of voters every year. Sym offers some reflections on our blog.

New board members

We're excited to announce that Jonathan Flowers and Paul Maltby have joined Democracy Club's board. Between them they bring a vast amount of experience in UK government and digital services, and will be closely involved in guiding our strategy over the coming years.

At the same time, Mevan Babakar has stepped down after seven years as an NED at DC, during which time she also served as CEO and, most recently, Chair of the board. Democracy Club wouldn't have achieved the success it has without her. Thank you Mevan!

Learn more about Jonathan and Paul on our blog.

Devolution consultations

The public consultations on six new Combined Authorities have been launched by the government. This covers Cumbria, Cheshire, Essex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Sussex. The deadline to submit a response is 13 April. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and local Government have published a useful explainer, and you can access the consultations on GOV.UK.

AEA publishes reform proposals

The Association of Electoral Administrators has published its revised ‘Blueprint for a Modern Electoral System’. In it they call for review and reform of practically the entire electoral process. Key among their recommendations is a lengthening of the timetable, in particular for the management of postal voters. Eye-catching suggestions include weekend voting; abolishing Neighbourhood Planning Referendums, parish polls and Recall Petitions; and creating overseas parliamentary constituencies. The Guardian has a writeup of the report, and you can read the whole thing on the AEA’s website.

Elections to watch:

The City of London Court of Common Council elections will be held on 20 March. Candidate lists were published earlier this week. 141 candidates have been nominated; 38 of the council’s 100 seats have been won uncontested; 13 of 25 wards will see a poll. The vast majority of candidates are independent.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club ballotin: January 2025

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 15:47:45 +0000

Democracy Club ballotin: January 2025

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club

Welcome to the first 2025 edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

The May 2025 local elections

English local elections will be held in 24 councils on 1 May, after the government announced postponements in nine areas to allow for the creation of new unitary authorities. Elections in these areas are now likely to be held in May 2026.

The nine councils were due to elect 599 councillors, reducing the number up for election on 1 May by 26.6%; 1,657 council seats remain up for grabs. There will also be four combined authority and two local authority mayoral elections. We are updating our systems and will be giving information about these postponements to users of our election lookup.

The government have also announced that new devolution proposals will be pursued in six areas of England, with the intention of holding mayoral elections next year. You can read the full ministerial statement on the UK parliament website.

Parish matters

A different tier of local government now, as we’ve partnered with the National Association of Local Councils to produce some data and analysis on last year’s English town and parish council elections. To our knowledge, parish electoral data has never been collected and published like this before, so it’s something of an exclusive!

446 town and parish councils held elections in May 2024; 4,207 seats were up for grabs across 795 different wards. NALC have published a summary on their website, and we’ve a full breakdown of the data on our blog.

Election leaflets

We’re excited to share the latest update to ElectionLeaflets.org, our open database of election literature stretching back to 2009. Thanks to a grant from Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, we’ve been able to dedicate time to working on it for the first time since it launched. The site now allows users to browse and filter the leaflets by political party, UK nation or region, and date, as well as search by candidate name. Give it a go, and let us know what you think! We’ll have a full update and formal relaunch of the project next month.

Elections to watch

24 council by-elections are scheduled for the coming month, including three councils which are holding two elections apiece. As usual, you can see all upcoming elections on the front page of WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: November 2024

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 10:15:00 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: November 2024

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club

Welcome to the November 2024 edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

The Electoral Commission’s election report

At the start of the month the Electoral Commission published its report on the 2024 local general elections. As with previous EC reports it covers not only the administrative side of the election, but also incorporates opinion polling on public perception of the electoral process, and a survey of candidates. Most excitingly, we’re in it! The report’s first recommendation states: “We will also look at whether the Election Information tool we run with Democracy Club could be used to provide information for voters about the support they can access at their own local polling station.” We’ve taken a quick look at the report on our blog.

The City of London, again

A correction: the next City of London elections are in 2025 and not, as stated in the last newsletter, 2026. Apologies for any confusion.

On which note, our most recent blog takes a look at the Square Mile’s unique franchise, which allows workers to register and vote alongside residents. To facilitate this the City keeps a separate electoral register solely for use in its council elections. Curious? Read the blog.

A €1 million idea

The main Democracy Club news this month is that we failed to win some money. Back in August we submitted a joint bid, alongside mySociety and The Politics Project, for the Google.org impact challenge ‘strengthening democracy in Europe’. Our project, tentatively entitled ‘WhoDoesWhat’, is a proposal to build on mySociety’s famous ‘WriteToThem’ tool, using our data to produce a new lookup which explains the layers of government which relate to any UK address (a bit like WhoCanIVoteFor’s ‘Your Area’ pages). We asked for a lot of cash - €1 million - but we believe that this project will have an outsized impact. mySociety’s Alex Parsons has written up an excellent overview of the idea on their blog.

We may not have got the money (it was always unlikely, with so much competition and a relatively tiny €15 million pot), but in the process we accidentally got quite excited about the project. We’re meeting with mySociety and The Politics Project shortly to thrash out where we go next. So watch this space - and as Alex says, if you happen to have a million quid going spare, we’d love to talk…

Join us in Birmingham

We’re planning a little afternoon get-together on 1 February in Birmingham, our first in-person event since 2019. If you’re a user of our candidate database, whether as a volunteer, researcher or campaigner, this is for you! We’ll be talking about our future plans for the site, other projects, and will be seeking input on how these are shaped. Sign up here.

Notwestminster

Notwestminster is a free event for everyone who has something positive to say about local democracy and anyone who is up for the challenge of making it better. It’s happened every year for the past decade, and we’re delighted to be sponsoring next year’s event on 15 February. It’s in Huddersfield, and tickets are now available to book.

Elections to watch

There are 18 council by-elections over the next four weeks.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: October 2024

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 16:24:14 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: October 2024

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club

Welcome to the October edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

The minister speaks

On 15 October Alex Norris, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Democracy and Local Growth (the minister responsible for elections), published an open letter to electoral administrators. In it he announced the addition of Veteran Cards to the list of acceptable voter ID, and confirmed that the government will extend the vote to 16 and 17 year-olds. He also stated that the government would like to improve electoral registration, and intends to “look to identify and address the biggest challenges and pain-points in the current system for electoral registration and conduct”. You can read the letter on GOV.UK.

Our suggestions for change

Coincidentally, Norris’ letter came five days after we had published some recommendations for reform of UK statutory election notices. In short, the way information about elections is currently published is a bit of a pain. The official list of candidates does not perfectly reflect the ballot paper voters receive, and there is no requirement for councils to publish electorate data as part of the official results. These issues make our work, and the work of others, that bit harder. Do get in touch if you have any thoughts on this (especially if your name happens to be Alex Norris MP!). Read the blog.

Intimidation of election candidates

The recent general election sadly saw a very high level of abuse and intimidation directed towards candidates and campaigners, especially online. On 14 October the House of Commons approved the creation of a Speaker’s conference on the subject, to last the whole length of the parliament. This is something we at Democracy Club take very seriously, and we will be following this closely. The House of Commons Library has produced an excellent summary of the issue, which you can read on the parliament website.

Historically, Speaker’s conferences have been the main mechanism through which electoral law reform has been achieved in the UK, most famously in 1918. Learn more about past conferences from the Commons Library.

City of London Corporation

The City of London council holds its next election in March 2026. But the voter registration deadline is on 30 November this year. This is because the City’s ‘ward lists’ are published annually, and cannot be modified during the year. The City also has a unique franchise which allows City workers to vote, as well as residents. If you live or work in the Square Mile and aren’t sure if you’re eligible to vote, head over to the Speak for the City website now. We’ll have a blog out on this shortly.

Elections to watch

We’re currently aware of 45 council seats up for election in November, all of them on Thursdays. View the full list on the front page of Who Can I Vote For.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club September newsletter

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 11:01:32 +0000

Democracy Club September newsletter

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club

Welcome to the latest edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

It’s been a quiet month at Democracy Club, as we’ve been working towards some larger projects and/or holidaying. Fortunately lots of other people have been busy, with three important reports on various aspects of the general election published in September - details and links below.

Join our board

We’re looking for new board members! If you like what we do and think you’ve the skills to help us on our mission, take a look at the advert for Non-Executive Directors we published earlier this month. Applications close on 6 October. Learn more.

Why are elections cancelled?

We cover all UK elections above town and parish level - even those which never go to a poll. Since 2018 our database has recorded 2,732 cancelled or postponed elections. In our most recent blog we take a look at why, when and where these cancellations occur. Read it here.

General election reports

A major report on the general election was published by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s Election Assessment Mission. The Mission involved parliamentarians and staff from across the Commonwealth, and observed the entire campaign including 263 polling stations on 4 July. As one of its recommendations, the report suggests that the UK government “consider the Electoral Commission having a grater role in collecting and publishing data, including providing centralised information on candidates, such as gender and age.” This is only reinforced by the (otherwise very good) report getting the total number of candidates wrong! You can read a summary and access the full report on the CPA website.

The Electoral Commission has published a study of voter ID in the general election. The report found that 0.08% of people who tried to vote at a polling station could not do so due to the ID requirement. However, this figure should be regarded as a minimum, as it’s not possible to know how many turned back earlier or didn’t go at all due to the requirement. The report also notes very low takeup of the free ‘Voter Authority Certificate’. You can read the full report on the EC’s website.

Uttlesford District Council has published a report, written by the Association of Electoral Administrators, on the postal vote failures which affected 2,688 North West Essex voters in the general election. The AEA concludes that miscommunication between the council and its print company, and not issues with Royal Mail, caused the problem. The report also provides a great insight into the challenges involved in running an election, especially one at such short notice. You can read it here.

IFG ministers database

The Institute for Government has published its database of UK government ministers going back to 1979. This is a fantastic resource which we plan to incorporate into our own databases in the near future. Access the database on the IFG website.

Elections to watch

The wave of post-general election council by-elections continues apace, with a whopping 60 seats up for grabs in October. This includes 20 on the 10th, which is the largest number of standalone by-elections on a single day since we started tracking them in 2017 (excluding by-elections combined with national elections). As ever, you can see the full list on the front page of Who Can I Vote For.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club's Ballotin: September 2024

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 13:31:56 +0000

Democracy Club's Ballotin: September 2024

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club

Welcome to the September 2024 edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

Annual election report

We’ve published our report on the 2024 local and general elections.

These were our most successful elections by every metric. Between 1 April and 4 July we processed 20 million postcode searches from the UK public, setting new records for our local and general election work. We recieved polling station data from every UK local authority for the first time, and saw 59% of councils promote our tools to their voters. Our amazing volunteers collected the most comprehensive database on general election candidates we’ve ever had, and Who Can I Vote For achieved a user satisfaction rate of 86% in the week of the general election. And that’s just the tip of what we achieved!

What’s next?

We’re already starting to plan for the 2025 local elections, which are scheduled for 1 May (mainly English county councils). Our initial project focus will be on ElectionLeaflets.org, as well as making improvements to the candidates database which were raised during the general election. We’ll also be improving our elected representatives lookup, which we launched last month. Last but not least, we’re working on a data project relating to parish councils with the National Association of Local Councils. More details on all of these in future newsletters!

The big picture

It’s been an extraordinarily busy few months in UK politics. Not only have we had two major elections in quick succession, but electoral law has been tested - and changed - in different ways across the UK. University College London’s Constitution Unit has produced a detailed history of recent developments in its latest Monitor newsletter, which you can read here. We happen to be mentioned in it!

Elections to watch

September will see a bumper crop of local government by-elections, with 39 seats up for grabs across Great Britain. This unusually high number is due in part to councillors resigning after being elected MPs. As always, you can view a full list of all upcoming by-elections by scrolling down the front page of Who Can I Vote For.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: July 2024

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 09:09:16 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: July 2024

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club

Hello!

Welcome to the July 2024 edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

General election stats

The 2024 general election was our most successful ever. Between the announcement of the election on 22 May and close of poll on 4 July, our elections database processed 14.5 million postcode searches from the UK public, 5.5 million of which came between 1 and 4 July. You can find out how many searches we had in your constituency on our blog.

Not only were people coming to us in droves, but they found what they were looking for, too. We had record user satisfaction ratings of 86% on Who Can I Vote For, due in large part to the fantastic work of our volunteers, who ensured that our candidate database was more detailed than ever before.

We’ll publish a full report on our general election in the coming weeks.

Who won? And who else represents you?

We’re excited to launch a new feature on Who Can I Vote For which gives you information about elected organisations and representatives in your area. Not only your new MP, but also members of devolved parliaments, mayors, councillors and more. This is the first published part of our work towards a comprehensive representatives database. You can read more about this project on our blog, and give the tool a go on Who Can I Vote For. More soon!

How healthy is our electoral system?

“Our current system is difficult to understand and navigate. Recent changes have bolted 21st century user experiences on to 19th century infrastructure, too often leaving electors frustrated or disappointed.” That’s the view of the Association of Electoral Administrators, who have sent a letter to the new government outlining their concerns regarding the state of the UK electoral system. Read the letter.

Election results

If you haven’t already had enough general election analysis, our friends at the House of Commons Library have recently published a concise summary of the results on their website.

What's next?

Our priorities over the next few months will be gearing up for the May local elections - not only maintenance and improvements to our existing services, but also a complete overhaul of ElectionLeaflets.org. Watch this space!

Have a great August!

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: June 2024

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 11:47:59 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: June 2024

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club

The general election is tomorrow!

Find your constituency, candidates and polling station at WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk.

Remember that you’ll need to take photo ID to vote at the polling station.

Election results will be avaliable on Who Can I Vote For as they come in overnight.

The big picture

4,515 candidates are standing for election on 4 July. But who are they? Using our candidate database, we’ve taken a look at the demographics and past electoral histories of the people asking for your vote. What’s the gender split? How old are they? How many have previously stood for election, or been elected? What’s their favourite biscuit?! Read the blog to find out.

Our reach

We have answered over 10 million requests for election information from UK voters since the Prime Minister’s announcement on 22 May.

This election, our candidate data has been used by MRP polling sites such as Electoral Calculus , YouGov and the Financial Times. Our tools have allowed journalists to give accurate, detailed information about the election to their readers and viewers, across newspapers, radio and television.

Thanks to our amazing volunteers, our database now contains photos for 95% general election candidates, weblinks for 89%, statements to voters for 54%, and manifestos for more than 40 different political parties.

General elections are the start, not the end

This week, voters from across the UK are relying on Democracy Club to help them find their polling station and candidates. Whether you access our data directly through our postcode lookup on WhereDoIVote.co.uk or WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk, or via the Electoral Commission, BBC, or dozens of other partners, we are working hard to provide an accessible and accurate source of information.

But general elections are only one of the many types of elections we cover. Every year our services provide information on local elections and by-elections in every part of the country.

Behind the scenes, we partner with the Electoral Commission and build relationships with electoral administrators and other technology providers to understand challenges and opportunities, and make recommendations to improve the UK’s election infrastructure. Every day, our dedicated community of volunteers update candidate and election information that allows voters to cut through the noise and make informed decisions about their ballot.

Democracy Club is a long-term project. Our successes in this general election were made possible because we started planning for this moment in 2013.

Support our work

Democracy Club is a non-profit Community Interest Company. We work on an extremely tight budget. By making a monthly donation and joining our growing community of individual funders, you can directly support our mission and ensure that we'll be here to help voters in the next general election, and every election before that. Contribute today. Thank you!

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

2024 General Election sees record number of candidates

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 13:31:13 +0000

2024 General Election sees record number of candidates

democracy
club

Hello!

Our amazing volunteers have collected all the candidate lists for the general election, which were published on Friday evening.

It's official: the 2024 general election has a record number of candidates standing.

4,515 candidates are on the ballot on 4 July, smashing the previous record of 4,150 set in 2010. No constituency has fewer than five candidates. The longest ballot paper is in the Prime Minister's constituency of Richmond and Northallerton, where thirteen are standing.

98 different political parties are represented, as well as 461 independent candidates.

View the full list of parties on our blog.

Find out who's on your ballot at WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: May 2024

Wed, 29 May 2024 10:20:57 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: May 2024

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club

The general election is on! Over the coming weeks, millions of UK voters will use Democracy Club’s tools and data to access information about their parliamentary candidates.

Find out which candidates have already been announced for your constituency at WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk.

Note that following the recent boundary review, your constituency may have changed since 2019.

The official candidate lists will be published on or after 4pm on 7 June. The voter registration deadline is 18 June, midnight. Don’t forget you’ll need photo ID to vote in this election.

Are you a candidate, agent, or party campaigner?

We offer every parliamentary candidate a free profile on WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk. Find out how to update your profile.

Are you organising or attending a hustings?

We can promote these events to voters for free on WhoCanIVoteFor. Submit the event information here.

Election data and resources

We offer a wide range of resources for campaigners, journalists and researchers, including easy to use sheets of candidate details, and an interactive election lookup which can be added to any website. Learn more about our offering.

Local elections roundup

The English and Welsh local elections on 2 May were among our most successful ever. We collected polling station data from every council, answered over 5 million postcode searches from the UK public, and achieved record user satisfaction - a pretty good launchpad for the general election!

News from elsewhere

mySociety recently launched a new project on MPs’ and APPGs’ financial interests, WhoFundsThem, and are looking for volunteers. They’ve also added our candidate data to the postcode lookup on TheyWorkForYou.

The Welsh Government recently published a research report on the accessibility of democracy in the nation. Read it here.

Electoral administrators are the unsung heroes of UK democracy. They’ve now been given six weeks to organise a nationwide poll. Andrew Smith from the Association of Electoral Administrators recently wrote for LGiU on the challenges they face. Read it here.

Stay tuned for our summary of the election candidates after 7 June!

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: April 2024

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:20:40 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: April 2024

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club

One week to go until the 2024 local elections! On 2 May, everywhere in England and Wales will have something to vote for. Read on for more details about the national picture, or head to WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk to find out who will be on your ballot paper.

Remember that you’ll need to take photo ID to vote at the polling station.

If you’re voting by post and plan to hand your postal vote in to the council offices or at a polling station there have been some changes to the rules around this - learn more on the Electoral Commission website.

Candidates

Our amazing volunteers worked to collect all the candidate lists which were published between 5 and 8 April. There are 2,015 individual ballots across England and Wales on 2 May, and 10,662 candidates will be on them. This includes 11 mayoral elections, 37 Police and Crime Commissioners, 2,707 English councillors, and one MP (Blackpool South by-election).

We’ve published a data summary which gives the number of candidates standing for each political party in the English local elections and PCC elections: read the blog.

Our data is also powering lookups on the websites of the Electoral Commission and BBC News.

Manifestos

We’ve gathered together as much information as we can on these candidates, from election broadcasts by the major parties to local manifestos published in individual council areas: read the blog.

Analysis and commentary

The Local Government Information Unit has put together a great series of briefings under the heading ‘Local Elections 101’, which answers pretty much all the questions you may have on these polls. Their long read on the ‘ones to watch’ features our lookup.

Meanwhile the Institute for Government has used our election data to produce an excellent summary briefing on the elections.

Organising the poll

These elections will see the 2022 Elections Act in place for the first time in many areas. The Association of Electoral Administrators’ CEO Peter Stanyon has written up a great summary of the changes on the LGIU blog. Peter also appeared in a recent episode of the podcast ‘High Turnout Wide Margins’, discussing UK elections and the work of the AEA - listen to it here.

If you’re interested in what it takes to organise a UK election, we suggest you give the AEA a follow on Linkedin, where they’ve been sharing plenty of examples of administrators getting ready for the big day (you can give us a follow too).

Wigan council’s BoroughLife podcast recently spoke to the council’s electoral services team about their work: give it a listen here.

Join the Rowntrees

One piece of non-election news this month: JRCT (one of our funders) are seeking media, corporate and democratic accountability experts to advise on grant-making. If you think that sounds like you or someone you know, you can find out more on their website.

What about the results?

We’ll be collecting election results as they come in over the weekend following 2 May (we’re expecting many Mayors and PCCs to be counted on Saturday). You’ll be able to see all the results for your area on WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk.

All the Best, The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Ballotin: March 2024

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 10:16:38 +0000

Democracy Club Ballotin: March 2024

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Democracy Club Ballotin: March 2024

This is an HTML version of an email we sent on 03 Apr 2024.

If you would like to receive these emails in future, please subscribe.

Welcome to the (slightly delayed) March 2024 edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive.

In this newsletter:

The big SoPN day approaches
Candidates for London
Our latest blog posts
Hustings
Developments in electoral law
Elections to watch

SoPNs sighted

Those of you who are familiar with our work will know that there are two crucial days in our electoral calendar. One is polling day itself. The other is the day candidate lists are published by local authorities. Officially known as the Statement of Persons Nominated (SoPN), this is the final say on who will be on the ballot paper on election day.

Each year on this sacred day, our volunteers make the pilgrimage to the hallowed ground of candidates.democracyclub.org.uk, where they transcribe the candidates into our system. This crucial work allows voters to look up their ballot paper via a simple postcode search.

This year, due to variations in electoral law, there are two SoPN days. The Mayor of London and London Assembly occurred on 28 March. The rest of England and Wales - perhaps 8,000 candidates in total - will happen at 4pm 5 April (this Friday). If you want to help out, head over to our candidates site and create an account - everything you need to know will appear on the front page.

Candidates for London

The candidates for Greater London were published on 28 March:

13 candidates are standing for Mayor, representing 10 parties and three independents.
80 candidates are contesting the 14 constituency seats.
12 parties and 3 independents are contesting the 11 London-wide seats.

The twenty-five members of the London Assembly are elected using the Additional Member System. Eleven are elected by the whole city, and fourteen are elected by individual constituencies across London.

In terms of number of candidates, the London-wide list is traditionally the longest ballot paper in the UK. This year there are 123 individuals on it, down from 171 in the last election. However, voters choose between parties on this ballot.

Lean more about voting systems in the UK.

Latest blog posts

Case Study: The BBC

Democracy Club’s polling station finder allows the BBC to provide its readers with the information they need to vote.

Read the blog

What’s up for election in 2024?

On Thursday 2 May, local elections will take place everywhere in England and Wales. Council seats, mayoral positions, the London Assembly and Police and Crime Commissioners will all be contested.

2,636 seats across 107 local council authorities
37 Police and Crime Commissioners
11 Mayors, including eight Combined Authority Mayors
The London Assembly

Read the blog.

Voter information and UK law: an overview

State provision of election information has always been limited in the UK. Before the 21st century there was little statutory duty to provide material for voters. But recently things have begun to change. With proposed electoral reforms in Wales and Scotland set to expand voter information in the two nations, this blog takes a look at where it is already provided in UK law.

Read the blog.

Hustings

Each year we collect information on hustings, which we display to voters on WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk. Are you organising or attending a public hustings in the coming month?

Let us know about hustings.

Developments in electoral law

Two updates from Wales this month. The Senedd Cymru (Electoral Candidate Lists) Bill, which aims to ensure the Senedd is more representative of the gender make-up of Wales, was introduced earlier this month. Senedd research has published an overview of the proposed law.

Ceredigion council has voted to consult on replacing their First Past the Post electoral system with the Single Transferable Vote. It joins Powys and Gwynedd, who voted to consult late last year. Welsh councils are allowed to change their electoral systems as part of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021.

Elections to watch

Following the resignation of the MP for Blackpool South, a parliamentary by-election will take place alongside other elections on 2 May.

All the Best, The Democracy Club Team

Democracy Club Mailing lists

Democracy Club Ballotin: February 2026

Elections bill published

Northern Ireland partnership

Election leaflets

Remembering Mark Longair

Join us in London for SoPN day!

Democracy Club Ballotin: December 2025

The Democracy Network

Our board has a new chair

Other news

Voter registration pilots

More postponements

Democracy Club’s 2025 in review

The future of the polling station finder

Election leaflets

Parish councils

Other partnerships

The 2025 elections

Happy new year

Democracy Club Ballotin: October 2025

When and why do by-elections happen?

Job alert

Senedd recall polls

The challenges of running modern elections

Do the government’s electoral reforms go far enough?

All Party Parliamentary Groups

Elections to watch

The Ballotin: Democracy Club's newsletter

We’re looking for someone to chair our board

Latest blogs

Scottish parliament and Senedd Cymru elections

On the Electoral Commission

Elections to watch

Democracy Club Ballotin: July 2025

Election law changes announced by government

Our thoughts on the election strategy

The next combined authority elections

Politics Project launches votes at 16 roadmap

Parish councils and political parties

Democracy Club Ballotin: May 2025

May local elections report

Work with us at the Electoral Commission

How does the electoral system need to change before 2029?

Back to the general election

Elections to watch

Democracy Club Ballotin: April 2025

English local elections are on Thursday

Who’s standing?

Parish councils

The Electoral Commission and the polling station finder

Want more local election analysis?

Democracy Club Ballotin: March 2025

1 May local elections

The election timetable

Are you standing?

Volunteer for democracy

Democracy Club Ballotin: February 2025

Election Leaflets

Would you believe we’ve been doing this for a decade?

New board members

Devolution consultations

AEA publishes reform proposals

Elections to watch:

Democracy Club ballotin: January 2025

The May 2025 local elections

Parish matters

Election leaflets

Elections to watch

Democracy Club Ballotin: November 2024

The Electoral Commission’s election report

The City of London, again

A €1 million idea

Join us in Birmingham

Notwestminster

Elections to watch

Democracy Club Ballotin: October 2024

The minister speaks

Our suggestions for change

Intimidation of election candidates