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