The Ballotin - Democracy Club September Update

Dear [%full_name | Democracy Club Supporter%],

Introducing Democracy Club’s new CEO.

We’re delighted to announce that Democracy Club’s new CEO is Shabira Papain. Shabira is replacing Mevan Babkar, who has done a stellar job as Interim CEO since February. Although standing down as CEO, Mevan will remain on the board.

Shabira has a strong background in digital inclusion, recently as Head of Health Equalities & Digital Inclusion at NHSX, the digital arm of the NHS. She is also the founder of People Street, an agile community development start-up making inclusive design achievable.

Read more from Shabira on our blog. 

This isn’t the only personnel change we’ve had over the last few months. Our developer, Michael, elections assistant Eleesha and board members Ian and Olly have also moved on - all four contributed an enormous amount to the organisation and will be sorely missed. 

In their place we have a new developer, Bek Lewis, and James Key, who has joined the board.

Read more about our staffing changes and meet the new team members on the blog.

Our 2022 election report

The overview of our 2022 election output is now available. The election went as smoothly as we would have liked: once again, our amazing community of volunteers came out in force, collecting both candidates and results far faster than we anticipated. Enormous thanks to everyone who took part.

2022 election highlights

• 1.9 million postcode searches during election week.
• 83% of survey respondents were more likely to vote after using the polling station finder.
• 21,300 candidates added to the database.
• 1,526 volunteers made 64,000 database edits over the election period.
• All English and Welsh local election results recorded in record time.

Read the full report on our website.

The future

Over the next few months we’ll be pushing ahead with our new strategy, and seeking further funding for new and existing projects, in particular our work on elected representatives.

Rest assured, our election coverage will continue: May 2023 will see local elections across England and all councils in Northern Ireland. As usual, there will be plenty of opportunities for volunteers to take part.

All the best,

The Democracy Club Team