mySociety pre-election special:

5 ways to be an informed voter

April 2015

Not long until the election now!
Take these five steps, and on May 7th you'll be fully-informed and ready to vote.

1. Check your MP's voting record

Parliament's complex language means it's not always easy to understand how your MP voted—yet that's one of the key things you'll need to know before you decide whether to vote them back in again.

So we've put everything into plain English. Now it's easy to follow, and easy to share. Before the election, make sure you check how your MP voted about the things that matter to you.

2. Try a Voter Advice Application

If you're not sure who to vote for, there are a whole load of online tools to help you find the candidate best aligned with your beliefs.

We've been keeping a list of them here.

3. Check the WriteToThem rankings

Our site WriteToThem.com allows you to write to politicians—and every year, we analyse which MPs are the best at replying.

Everyone wants an MP who replies to their letters, don't they? Check where your MP sits in our responsiveness league table: just type in your postcode here.

4. See if you're still in the same ward

It's not just the General Election on May 7th: in many places, you'll be voting for local councillors too.

Thanks to recent boundary changes, you may not be in the ward you thought you were. Fortunately, we've made a tool to help you check that.

5. Check out Full Fact

A whole lot of facts are going to be bandied about by politicians, between now and the General Election. How do you know which to believe?

Fortunately, there's an organisation that's dedicated to checking every statement, so that you can see the bare facts with no added hyperbole. They're called Full Fact, and we've been helping them out with a bit of tech. Read all about them here.

Bonus: inform the next generation, too

So that's you all clued up, then. Now how about your kids?

We've created new materials for schools, in collaboration with the Citizenship Foundation.

There are twelve lesson plans, many of which centre around the use of mySociety sites. They're free, and suitable for a range of ages and school subjects—tell all the teachers you know!

mySociety events

AlaveteliCon is coming

19-20 May, Madrid

If you’re involved with Freedom of Information technologies, you’ll want to be at AlaveteliCon, the only conference with a specific focus on FOI in the internet age. Find out more here.

TICTeC: the resources

Whether you attended our conference on the Impact of Civic Technology, or are sorry to have missed it, you'll want to see our collection of videos, interviews and speakers' slides from the day.

You can find everything here.

See all mySociety events on our calendar »

And finally…

Got any burning questions for Network Rail? Time to FOI them.
FixMyStreet's enjoying a boom. Keep those reports coming!
WriteToThem - now endorsed by Iron Maiden!
Making politics fun: build your dream cabinet with Fantasy Frontbench (not a mySociety project, but it does use data from TheyWorkForYou).
Need a super duper digital tool? We can do that for you.

Forward

Images: Pencils William Warby; Madrid Héctor Esteban Menéndez (both CC)

mySociety is a project of UK Citizens Online Democracy (UKCOD).
UKCOD is a registered charity in England and Wales, no. 1076346.