Vote for Policies

When we engage with democracy we feel part of a wider society, so it was troubling to hear that turnout in July was 60% (the second lowest since 1918). But the real figure is even lower. Just 51.6%. Masked, as it always is, by the inflated method used to calculate it. The issue is that the electoral register is only 86% complete, so the 48.2 million registered voters make up only 86% of all eligible voters (equating to 56.1 million). These ‘missing millions’ must be included in turnout calculations if we are to really see the problem we want to address. Why wouldn't we? Especially when we CAN do something about this. 🚀 You can read more here: https://lnkd.in/eHs9B7ni #YourVoiceMatters #Democracy 😎

"We have a right to feel excited about voting" - Vote for Policies founder Matt Chocqueel-Mangan spoke to Times Radio's Alexis Conran about how the next UK government must take responsibility for informing all of us before an election. A representative poll from Kantar showed a 35% higher voting intention among our users. So voter advice tools work: more informed means more likely to vote, and that's better for us all. This is already happening in countries like Germany, where millions use a voter advice tool that is state-funded, fully resourced, and dedicated to civic education. Every country deserves the same, including the UK. https://lnkd.in/dejF_7m #yourvoicematters

The evening before polling day is always the busiest period for the Vote for Policies site 🙏 - so before things kick off I wanted to take stock... In the space of six short (yet also very long) weeks we’ve shipped more features than we have in the last six years! It's been a remarkable achievement for such a tiny team. And it's down to the help we’ve received from our wonderful tech partner Embeddables. Crucially, this tech partnership meant we could be guided our fantastic and highly engaged community that gave us feedback and feature requests along the way. Armed with rich user feedback we could move fast. Really fast. There's not one screen that's the same as when we launched - all have been improved based on feedback and analytics. The list of new features is long too. We were finally able to roll-out our much-requested 'Explainers' feature, added a 'quick start' option to make starting easier, made pausing to come back easy too, and in the last few days have added impartial background information for those that want to know more context when comparing policies. And results pie charts are automatically generated when people share their results (we've been trying to do this for the past three elections 😁 ) Thanks to Embeddables we also were able to experiment - building pages for each of the 650 constituencies which in turn brought many new visitors to the site needing help with how to vote, and who learned about our survey and what we do. What you won't have seen though, is that we also started developing pages for each individual policy that the survey includes. These could be the start of the next phase of work between elections - everyday democracy, staying connected to the policies that we care about. It's hard to put this achievement into context unless you are familiar with the lack of funding and resources in the 'democracy tech' sector. This partnership has been a perfect fit and it makes the future look very bright indeed. So a huge thanks to all at Embeddables. #getoutthevote #yourvoicematters

Tomorrow is election day. If you do one thing today, please take a few minutes to help your friends and family vote tomorrow - and know what they're voting for. We know comparing actual policies helps people feel more informed, and as a result more likely to vote. So please send https://lnkd.in/dejF_7m to five people or WhatsApp groups that you think could benefit. This incredibly simple act can make a big difference to their personal feeling of agency and citizenship. And give turnout a mini boost. Make it your good deed for the day! https://lnkd.in/dejF_7m #getoutthevote #yourvoicematters

Only two days to go... Please keep on sharing to help all those who are still undecided (and those in danger of leaving it to the last minute!! 😀) https://lnkd.in/dejF_7m #GE2024 #yourvoicematters #GetOutTheVote

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland voters - wait no longer! The Vote for Policies survey is now available for voters (and non-voters) in Scotland. And just in time for all you postal voters out there too. Happy policy comparing... https://lnkd.in/e9kq2UrK

Our 2024 general election survey is now live! Get ready to compare manifesto promises, but without knowing which party they belong to... https://lnkd.in/dejF_7m

Students!! (and parents of students) Students, you have a unique voting superpower by being able to vote at home or where you study! Head to https://univoter.com to pick the best constituency for you. Your vote could be more powerful than you think! Made by the folks at Embeddables #yourvoicematters

Decision day is coming! Six days left to register (last day is Tuesday 18th June) at: https://lnkd.in/dBR7ZwQ #yourvoicematters

Voters! We'll update our 'policy comparison' survey once the last of the manifestos are published (probably 10-14 days before polling day). Stay tuned!