Hiya, I'm interested in developing a cross-platform app integrating information from TheyWorkForYou and WriteToThem, probably using PhoneGap. My background is in political and surveys research and my coding skills are at enthusiastic-amateur level. Given it would be a fairly big task, I wondered if this is something MySociety are working on.
My particular interest is in allowing people to share party preference (distinct from voting preference) at ward level. Being able to share party preference in advance of an election means that voting could be more informed by what party people actually want to vote for, rather than the party they vote for because "they have a chance of winning". Tactical votes are estimated to make up around 30% of votes cast in the UK, however tactical voting favours incumbents and big parties. It is possible for an electorate to vote for the incumbent despite actually supporting a new candidate because they don't think the new candidate has a chance of winning and can't communicate their preference to each other. The advantage of a phone app is that location could be used to verify address, giving confidence to the information. I realise the vote preference sharing idea would involve a bit of work, and its success would be heavily reliant on take up. However, the potential is making a more representative democracy where people are given confidence to vote for smaller parties and independents. In any case, it would have benefits with regard to informing people. Be interested in your thoughts etc, cheers, Jason
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