Unlock Democracy: 1,500 Londoners use Vote Match within hours of launch

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Friday, 04, Apr 2008 12:00

Unlock Democracy's new Vote Match web application - a new tool designed to help Londoners decide how to vote in the London elections on 1 May - received a major boost today when the number of people using it broke the 1,000 barrier within hours of it launching today.

The 1,000th user used the tool at around 1.45pm today. Within an hour, another 500 users had used it.

All ten Mayoral candidates and the thirteen political parties standing for the London-wide Assembly elections have provided their answers to the survey which forms the basis of the web application.

As well as matching their views against the candidates', voters can give specific policies extra weight. The results screen enables them to examine the candidates' views in more detail and points them to where they can get more information.

The issues that the users of the website have said matter the most to them so far are congestion charging (69% think it should be kept), affordable housing (62% think affordable rented accommodation is a bigger problem than immigration while 63% oppose proposals to scrap the 50% affordable housing target) and anti-social behaviour (63% disagree with the statement that penalising anti-social behaviour is more important than providing youth centres). Please note this is not a representative sample of public opinion.

Commenting, Director of Unlock Democracy Peter Facey said:

"We were expecting Vote Match to be popular but are pleasantly surprised that it has taken off so quickly. The potential of a tool like this to help boost participation is enormous - in the Netherlands, 1-in-3 voters used Vote Match's sister site 'Stemwijzer' in the last Parliamentary elections."

Vote Match has already received praise from the London Civic Forum ("The online aspect should especially appeal to younger and first time voters."), MayorWatch.co.uk ("VoteMatch is clearly set out and simple to use tool with great potential to help inform and empower voters."), Operation Black Vote ("Anything that increases the likelihood of people to play a full and positive role in the democratic process is to be applauded.") and the OurKingdom website ("Vote Match is a strikingly intelligent and original contribution").

You can find out more information about Vote Match, and try out the quiz yourself, by going to: www.votematch.co.uk

ENDS

1. Unlock Democracy, incorporating Charter 88, is the UK's leading campaign for democratic renewal and active engagement in the political process.

2. For more information, a quote or an interview, please contact James Graham on 020 7278 4443 / 07966 237550.