A project has been launched to fill the gap in local council election data. There is currently no central or open record of the results of local elections in the UK. It is not possible to look back at how people voted in local council elections over the past 10 years. Neither is it possible to compare turnout between different areas, and different periods. Although the Electoral Commission has responsibility for elections, it does not provide any information about results.

The Open Election Data project has been launched to help councils to publish their election results in an open, reusable common format. The project uses a Resource Description Framework which maps and embeds the data into Web documents. This means that most Content Management System should be able to use the technique to expose the data, while still allowing them to style it in different ways.

For more information about the Open Data Project go to the IDeA Communities of Practice website at http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/c/3916997/doclib/document-display.do?backlink=ref&id=4161797

To sign up for use of the facility go to Open Elections. http://openelectiondata.org/