Democracy Volunteers has deployed observers across Great Britain for the largest election observation since the 2024 UK General Election.
In teams of two, using the internationally accepted standard of the ‘four-eyes method’, teams are deployed from 7am to 10pm to polling stations to observe the process. The teams answer up to 64 questions on different aspects of the voting process from disability access to political activity at polling stations.
Democracy Volunteers have informed all those councils across Scotland, Wales and England that observers may be in their area, following the recent changes made to the code of practice issued by the Electoral Commission.
Democracy Volunteers observed the electoral process in 204 Westminster parliamentary constituencies across the UK. The organisation deployed two or more observers to each constituency. In total, the number of observers, experts and support staff was over 200 at this election.
As part of Democracy Volunteers’ election observation for the 2025 English Local Elections, held on May 1st, the team worked with students from Manchester University to assess the impact on local election candidates because of the threats they receive.
Our team wrote to over 2,000 candidates, across parties, to see...
Democracy Volunteers has been observing elections in the UK for 10 years. We have seen ‘family voting’ across the UK and we think it is important to explain more about it and how it should be possible to limit or prevent it.
‘Family voting’, as it is generally called internationally,...
Democracy Volunteers celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2025, marking a decade of independent election observation. Since our founding in 2015, the organisation has monitored more than 200,000 voters across 13,000 polling stations and influenced reforms such as the Ballot Secrecy Act 2023.
Our director Dr John Ault has backed the international call to action on election observation. On the 29th of April, within the framework of the New Democratic Pact for Europe, the conference (Towards Trusted and Inclusive Electoral Processes: The Role of Observers) called on the Council of Europe’s member...
The main challenge to observation was the incapacity to deploy any of our observers to the United States in person. This meant we had to readjust our usual methods...
13 observers were registered by Democracy Volunteers with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government (DHPLG) and local Returning Officers (ROs). They were divided into teams of 2...
198 observers registered by Democracy Volunteers with the Electoral Commission, as well as three observers who directly accredited themselves with the Commission, made up in teams of 2, made...
The mission deployed in two waves: a core team was located in Gibraltar for one week around the election and two short term observers deployed primarily for polling day...
Democracy Volunteers has today conducted polling station observations across the UK. Given the high level of interest in the election, Democracy Volunteers accredited and deployed a team of 200...
Democracy Volunteers deployed two teams to observe the national elections to the European Parliament in the UK and The Netherlands. A third team was deployed to the same elections...
A team of 26 observers registered with, and accredited by, the UK’s Electoral Commission made 320 separate observations across the 1,463 different polling stations (ballot boxes) in Northern Ireland....
The mission deployed in two waves: a core team for up to ten days and the rest of the short-term observers for the weekend of the election. The mission...
Democracy Volunteers deployed teams across the four councils conducting Voter ID Pilots on May 2nd. Teams of observers were deployed to Derby, Pendle, Mid-Sussex and Woking. The selection of...
The mission deployed 6 observers in three teams of two. These were registered with The Netherlands’s Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. These six observers were accredited to...
A team of 6 observers registered with, and accredited by, the UK’s Electoral Commission made 45 separate observations across the 55 different polling stations in the Newport West Parliamentary...
Observers deployed were from Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Each observation was conducted in pairs to allow for objective...