Face the general election like a pro

with mySociety’s tools

June 2024

A polling station sign outside a honey-stoned building

Got the General Election overwhelm?

Fear not: there are some really useful pre-election features on our websites that just make everything simple. Some are new, and some you just might not know about — so be sure to check our run-down here to find out who's standing in your area (thanks to Democracy Club for that data); whether there are new boundaries for your constituency; and where to locate information to help you decide how to vote.

Do your friends a favour

Not everyone's as clued up about mySociety's services as you are! Around election time, lots of people become more interested in who they can vote for and how democracy works.

Now would be a great time to point them at TheyWorkForYou and Local Intelligence Hub.

You'll also find some good posts to share on our Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, LinkedIn and Instagram accounts. Thanks for your help in telling more people how we can be useful!

How much do you know about your rpevious MP? Theyworkforyou.com from mySociety

Do you know who you can voe for? Theyworkforyou.com from mySociety

Do you know what to say when candidates knock at your door? Localintelligencehub.com from mySociety

Your constituency might have changhed. Theyworkforyou.com from mySociety

A more inclusive primary education

How one campaign is using FOI to change the system

A small child whose fingers are tracing a verse on the Bible

Parents for Inclusive Education is a campaign in Northern Ireland to make education more diverse — and they started with a Freedom of Information project to map the current state of affairs. Find out what this small organisation has already achieved, with the help of our FOI service WhatDoTheyKnow Pro.

Free-to-use FOI resources

If you're a campaign or group trying to bring about change, and you think FOI might be useful but aren't sure where to begin, check out our free online masterclasses. We've also provided written summaries, so you can learn in whichever way you prefer.

Long aperture photo of the Houses of Parliament at night, with trails of car taillights and headlights creating streaks

When one vote swings it

We dig into the recent vote on the exclusion of MPs arrested on suspicion of a serious offence. It passed by just one vote — and it's a good illustration of the complications of the parliamentary voting system which, we argue, is out of date.

WhoFundsThem on hold

If you volunteered to be part of our WhoFundsThem project, you should have received our email to tell you that because of the election, we're putting everything back for a few months.

We'll be back, though. And in the meantime, you can still support the project. Because, no matter who gets into power, they'll need to be held accountable!

Help us send you the emails you want to read

We do a lot of different things here at mySociety, and we appreciate that not everyone will be interested in every single part of it.

So if you've got a minute, please tell us a bit more about yourself, and we'll work towards sending you the stuff you really want to read.

Scorecards are back, and better than ever

Rooves of houses in a terrace, against a blue but cloudy sky

A lot of work goes into the Council Climate Action Scorecards, and that begins with making sure the questions councils will be marked against are fair, well-conceived and comprehensive. That process has already kicked off for the 2025 Scorecards - read about what's changed and how decisions are made.

A selection of mySociety's useful websites

Appreciate what we do?

As we hope this newsletter makes clear, we're very busy all the time, making democracy more accessible to everyone, and providing the tools to help people play an active part in society.

If you can help us out, please do head to our secure donate page. Every contribution helps us to work harder and faster towards a better, more inclusive society. Thank you.

Donate now

What we're reading

Insights into which parties are advertising, where, and who they're targeting.
How AI Will Change Democracy.
If anyone can do good UX, shouldn't it be the tech giants?
How to resurface a road without stopping traffic.
Like the Bechdel test, but for climate.
Probably don't do this.

Want to know more? Sign up now:

The mySociety Toolkit - six emails that tell you everything you need to know about our tools - and the amazing things you can do with them

A small pre-election note: The Toolkit teaches you about all our websites, but while Parliament has dissolved, some things are a little different. You can't use WriteToThem to contact MPs (it's still fine for other representatives, like councillors); and while you can still sign up for TheyWorkForYou email alerts, you won't receive anything until Parliament is back up and running. But you can still use WhatDoTheyKnow, FixMyStreet and our climate sites in the usual way - and anyway, we think it's still worth learning about our services so you have all that knowledge in hand when the new government begins.

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mySociety is a registered charity in England and Wales (1076346) and a limited company (03277032).
Through our trading subsidiary SocietyWorks (05798215) we also provide commercial services.

Image credits: Polling Station Red Dot; Toddler reading bible Priscilla Du Preez; roofs of terraced houses Winston Tjia

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United Kingdom

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