Welcome to the February 2026 edition of Democracy Club’s regular newsletter. All past emails are accessible in an online archive. Elections bill publishedThe government’s Representation of the People Bill was published on 12 February, and is due to be debated in the Commons for the first time on 2 March. This will give 16 and 17 year-olds the vote in all UK elections, along with a raft of other reforms (the Association of Electoral Administrators has produced a handy summary). Many of these changes have been welcomed, although there is also widespread consensus that there is room for improvement. We’re excited about section 49 of the bill, which gives the Electoral Commission and the Secretary of State the power to request information from councils in order to run voter information services. But we’re also concerned that, as written, the bill could produce rigid requirements which cannot be easily adapted if circumstances change. You can read more about this on our blog. Northern Ireland partnershipWe’ve recently completed a programme of work to support the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland (EONI) run a polling station finder and polling district mapping tool. EONI manages all elections across Northern Ireland, and is the largest electoral services team in the UK. We’ve written up this work in a new case study on our blog. Election leafletsElection leaflets were unusually prominent in yesterday’s Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election. Professor Rob Ford of Manchester University has written a fascinating round-up of the contest, including a lovely promotion of our own ElectionLeaflets.org. Have you received any election literature in the post recently? Please snap a photo and upload it! Remembering Mark LongairMark Longair, the creator of our candidate crowdsourcing website, died in January. We've decided to dedicate the site to Mark's memory, and Sym has published a tribute on our blog. Join us in London for SoPN day!9 April is ‘SoPN day’: the day councils will begin publishing candidate lists (‘Statement of Persons Nominated’) for the English and Welsh elections on 7 May. Democracy Club will be meeting in person at Newspeak House in London for an evening of high-octane political data entry. Anyone is free to come along - simply bring your laptop. We’ll take care of the rest. Interested? Let us know if you’re coming. All the best, The Democracy Club Team | 
