The poor online availability of UK election data is ‘now something of a scandal,’ the director of a think tank has said.
Director of Democratic Audit and professor of political science at the London School of Economics, Patrick Dunleavy, criticised the online resources provided by local authorities.
In a report published today, Democratic Audit said some councils failed to provide ‘integrated, user-friendly information’.
The report said election results were published in ‘inaccessible formats,’ with some local authorities still publishing them by scanning handwritten forms.
Prof Dunleavy said: ‘Other countries have embraced new technology in order to inform voters.
‘Here we cling to old-fashioned methods that do not meet the minimum expectations of web-literate young people seeking to engage with the democratic process.’
