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I figure in an election, the main government portal and the page with the representative body for which the elections are being held should provide citizens with links to comprehensive election information. Here is a "brief" on the subject: http://dowire.org/wiki/Voter_Education_Online In Minneapolis, we are starting to use a wiki to collect candidate web sites well before the November election (all but two candidates were added by web site visitors!): http://www.dowire.org/wiki/Mpls2005 (675 views while drafting) One non-profit site that did a good job with localized election information in the UK was Online Communities (see Richmond for example): http://www.oncom.org.uk Also, the UK election link list has received over 4350 page views since we started, please add links to live election results and chats now: http://www.dowire.org/wiki/UK_elections Steven Clift http://dowire.org http://publicus.net More: http://www.socitm.gov.uk/Public/insight/publications/ County+Councils+Elections+on+the+web.htm (put on one line) From: http://www.publictechnology.net/ modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2857 (put on one line) e-democracy on council websites fails test, says Socitm pre-election survey A Socitm survey of information provided on council websites about the county council elections on May 5 reveals widespread failure to use this important channel for local democracy at a key moment in the four-year electoral cycle. The survey, carried out by Socitm Insight, publishers of Better connected the annual survey of local authority websites, reviewed information provided on their websites by the 34 county councils in England involved in elections on May 5. All 34 websites were reviewed on Sunday 24 April, ten days before the election, by asking ten questions about the forthcoming elections. Questions included ‘does the election figure prominently on the home page?’ ‘Is it possible to find a list of councillors by ward?’ ‘Are procedures for postal voting clearly described’; ‘how will the results be published’ and so on. On the completion of the survey, the performance of each council website was rated. Only four counties were rated as very good. Cumbria and Wiltshire did best of all with 8 questions answered, followed closely by Norfolk (7 questions) and Lincolnshire (6 questions). Another five counties were rated as satisfactory. Five councils had no information and another 20 were rated as poor. ... What did the survey find? Overall, each county website answered on average just three questions out of ten. This average included six that could answer no questions, ten that could only answer one or two questions and only six that could answer more than five questions. In particular, > 26 councils featured the election, prominently on the home page; 8 did not. > 19 councils provided a list of councillors by ward, but in 8 cases this relied on a list. in ‘pdf’ format (ie as a ‘paper’ copy that is not as easy to use for the casual visitor). > 13 provided search facilities for a specific ward by name, map or postcode. > 13 mentioned how the results will be reported on the website. > 7 claimed to publish the results in ‘real time’. > None had any plans for webcam transmissions as the results came in. > 5 out of the 7 gave clear instructions to encourage visitors. > Just two mentioned the period of ‘purdah’ that prevents elected bodies from advertising their activities in the immediate run-up to the election. > Two councils offered a list of polling stations > 15 councils clearly described the procedures for postal voting. ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - - - W: http://publicus.net Minneapolis - - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift UK Office Hours - 1pm - 11pm - - T: 0870.340.1266 Join my Democracies Online Newswire: http://dowire.org *** Past Messages, to Subscribe: http://dowire.org *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To UNSUBSCRIBE instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** New RSS XML Feed Available: *** http://www.mail-archive.com/do-wire@lists.umn.edu/maillist.xml
