Mark Bell (Brighton, votewise.co.uk): April 2007. It's a quiet day in the office and a couple of us take passing interest in the forthcoming local election and do a little research to establish who our candidates are. We've had no literature or visits from any of them so far. A passing interest rapidly evolves into an all consuming personal quest to find out who these people are, what they are standing for and why we should vote for them.
We find out how many there are, where they live and what party they stand for quite easily. Getting to the core issues however, seemed to be a tedious matter of waiting for a visit / flyer or trawling through endless impenetrable council / party websites. Five months later, giving the voting public the opportunity to make a more informed decision, we launched http://votewise.co.uk.
Voters simply click on a map once an election is announced and are presented with a list of all candidates standing for election. The information remains live until the ballot is closed. By clicking on a candidate's photograph, visitors to the site can read a summary of their politics and their top campaign issues. Post ballot, candidate profiles move to a central archive; 'a promise bank'. In months and years to come voters can refer back to original campaign pledges and responses.
All candidate profiles are presented in exactly the same format, created by the candidate and subject to Electoral Commission campaign material guidelines. All candidates are sent a postal and email invite containing their unique Votewise account details which they can use to edit their profile and respond to questions. Voters can give issues the 'thumbs up' and challenge one or all candidates on any aspect of their manifesto by using a simple 'ask a question' box. votewise.co.uk is an entirely free service. It is run independently for the benefit of all electoral candidates equally and without sponsorship.
Political parties continue to increase attention and investment on e-campaigning and e-democracy. Quite right: the web is an ideal medium for such activities and the opportunity should be fully exploited. We believe it's only right that all electoral candidates should have a robust, consistent and equal platform on which to inform and engage with the voting masses. While each political entity fights its own campaign based on its policies at varying degrees of spin, the public are often left bemused, blinded or simply in the dark as to who should ultimately win their vote. By removing the spin, presenting the facts and doing so for all candidates equally - perhaps, more of our democratic society can be encouraged to actually take part?
