2024 local election user feedback

Each election we ask visitors to our sites questions about their user experience. This is so that we can better understand areas for improvement, as well as our impact. In this blog, we provide an overview of the feedback received from the 2024 local elections on WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk and WhereDoIVote.co.uk.

An overview

Submitted by users from midnight on Monday 29 April to close of polls (22:00) on Thursday 2 May, a total of 5613 responses were collected across two questions and a written feedback opportunity for users, 1956 on Who Can I Vote For, and 3657 on Where Do I Vote.

Both sites gathered positive feedback responses when asked ‘Did you find what you were looking for?’.

• On Where Do I Vote, 91% of respondents said ‘Yes‘ - this is a small drop of 1% from last year.

• From the 1768 responses on Who Can I Vote for, 78% of users selected ‘Yes’, a significant increase from 64% last year.

As we did in previous years, we asked our users a second question concerning their thoughts on voting, ‘Has this information made you more likely to vote?’.

This year, we added a new option of ‘no change’ as an answer on Who Can I Vote For, this was the most common response we receieved from users (50%). The new option can possibly explain the drop that we saw in users selecting ‘more likely’¹ to vote, totalling at 33%, a decrease from 2022 (52%) and 2023 (46%). In regard to those ‘less likely’ to vote, this stood at 13%.

In response to this question, 80% of respondents on Where Do I Vote selected ‘Yes’, an increase of 4% from last year, highlighting the importance and impact our polling station finder, and accessibility to polling station information has for users.

Who Can I Vote For?

Where Do I Vote

‘Can you tell us anything more?’ - Written Feedback Highlights

Across both sites, we received a total of 1436 written responses (1187 on Who Can I Vote For and 249 on Where Do I Vote), these responses ranged from praise from users, to queries concerning their polling location, to notes for improvement. A significant number of users used the written feedback opportunity to voice their criticisms concerning the candidate options in their area, as well as their thoughts on the elections taking place.

Who Can I Vote For

When reviewing the feedback for areas of improvement, many users noted missing information concerning candidates in their area and for previous election data to be presented on Who Can I Vote For:

• “If candidates create videos outlining their goals, I will vote. Lack of candidate information leaves me unsure who to support.”

• “How can I make a decision on any of the candidates when I have had no information as to their suitability?”

• “I would have liked to see the voting data for the last e.g. 5 elections for this position.”

• “Looking for details of turnout and votes cast at past elections.”

Choice of candidates

A number of users voiced their criticisms concerning the choice of candidates in their area, specifically concerning their wish to vote for a specific party that did not have candidates standing in their ward:

• “Why are candidates only from major political parties. Not happy with the choice.”

• “No candidates for the party I want to vote for. This is not Democracy!”

Police and Crime Commissioner elections

We saw many users raise the Police and Crime Commissioner (and PFCC) elections in their responses. A total of 58 feedback responses on Who Can I Vote For included the word ‘police‘ and 25 feedback responses included ‘PCC‘ in the context of the elections, of which, mostly included users voicing their thoughts on the post:

• “No idea what police commissioner does or who these people are and what they stand for.”

• “Is this purely an election of the Police and Crime Commissioner or is there a vote for leader of the local councils.”

• “I had assumed the person who was to be elected was a senior police officer. I did not realise they were local politicians. I’m off to the polling station now. Thank you.”

Impact and praise

Of the written feedback, the praise we received illustrates the positive impact accessibility to election and candidate information has on our users ability to vote:

• “Good website. I did not know what/who I was voting for before reading this website! Media info was unclear.”

• “Thanks so much for the info on this page it has enabled me to decide who to vote for today.”

• “Core information all in one place with links to candidate socials and other pages aids decision making and drastically cuts down research times. 10/10, keep it up!”

Where Do I Vote

Providing polling station information from every council in England and Wales, our polling station finder on Where Do I Vote received a number of positive responses from users of the site. A number of users also used the written feedback option to raise queries concerning the information presented for their polling station.

• “Without the information telling me where I can vote, I would be unable to vote, as I would not know where to go. Therefore, this information has enabled me to vote.”

• “All the information and also inclusive with help on voting with impairment.”

• “The only comprehensive instructions page as it is my first time voting in the UK! thank you!”

• “In 2 minutes I found exactly the resource I was looking for: where is my polling station? What do I need to bring to vote? Simple and easy, keep up the good work.”

Thank you!

A big thank you to everyone who helped us during the election period, we greatly appreciate it!
The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive, with many users highlighting the essential nature of our sites. However, comments show that we still have areas for improvement, which we will look to address ahead of the next election.