Four resources for election candidates and watchers
As I work through more ads and spending data (coming soon), I wanted to share 4 brilliant resources that have really impressed me this week.
1) A dashboard of all local election candidates
The very good people over at Women for Election have built an easy to navigate dashboard showing all 2,171 candidates running in the locals, which you can see at national level, mapped onto LEAs (the constituencies used for the locals, which are smaller than for general elections), and party. It covers candidates of all genders, highlighting the breakdown in each area and party. Highly recommend (though it is easier to navigate on a bigger screen).
See also:
- The excellent interactive guide to Dublin City Council candidate's view on the issues important to readers, as compiled by the Dublin Inquirer.
- The epic and painstaking work that NUI Maynooth academic Adrian Kavanagh has done documenting election candidates this time around and in previous votes.
2) Guidance for candidates for online abuse or post removal
Coimisiún na Meán (the media and online safety regulator) have published really clear and accessible guidance for election candidates with advice on being a candidate online, including how to report illegal content (like harassment), deal with platform take downs, and this great table of what might be illegal content (something I get asked about quite a bit).
Great to see a state body create such user oriented guidance.
See also:
3) Information for those new to voting in Ireland
The Electoral Commission has the basics on Local Elections here - including info on how to vote in our preferential system. This is a good resource to share with first time voters, especially those who didn't grow up here, as it links to guidance in different languages (reminder - anyone legally resident and registered can vote in the locals).
See also:
- They have another guide for accessible voting - did you know that if you need it, you can apply to have a companion help you vote, or a braille reader?
4) At it again: a newsletter for UK GE watchers
If you've any interest at all in the UK General Election - subscribe to the excellent Full Disclosure by WhoTargetsMe on Substack. Here is a quick quote from this morning's assessment of the Tory party campaign "launch":
