## [Help us get election results reporting right for every voting system in the UK and Ireland](/insight/help-us-get-election-results-reporting-right-every-voting-system-uk-and-ireland) Body ![/sites/default/files/2026-07/cfpr-header.png](/sites/default/files/2026-07/cfpr-header.png) [News](/insights?field_tags_target_id=9) 03 July 2026 | Duncan Davidson # Help us get election results reporting right for every voting system in the UK and Ireland If you work in a council comms or digital team, you know what election night looks like. Results arriving in bursts, a website that needs updating fast, and residents and journalists refreshing the page. The [LocalGov Drupal elections module](https://rohallion.agency/insight/developing-easier-way-report-election-results) exists to make that night easier. It lets council teams publish declared results quickly and clearly, from one place. Right now, though, the module only handles First Past the Post. And from May 2027 onwards, most of the elections councils will be reporting on don't use First Past the Post. That's the gap we need to close, and we're asking for help to close it properly. Not money, at this stage. Expertise. ## Where the elections module came from The module started life in 2022 as a bespoke application we built for the Cumberland Shadow Council Authority's founding election. It worked well enough that the results reporting was picked up on the social media accounts of several national news outlets. It could have stayed a one-off. Instead, [Cumberland Council](https://www.cumberland.gov.uk/) and [Westmorland and Furness Council](https://www.westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk/) funded the work to turn it into an open source module for the whole LocalGov Drupal community. That meant a substantial rewrite, a plugin system for boundary data, and social media integration. [Walsall Council](https://go.walsall.gov.uk/) then funded the next stage of development, adding support for multi-seat elections, including those where only some seats are contested. This is the LocalGov Drupal Community Fund model working as intended. A council pays once for something it needs, and every council on the platform benefits. Nobody pays for the same problem to be solved twice. It's "solving it once, together" in practice, and the elections module is one of the clearer examples of it delivering. ## What's coming that the module can't yet handle The next five years bring a run of elections that use proportional representation or mixed-member systems, none of which the module currently supports: - English mayoral elections in May 2027, which return to the Supplementary Vote under the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 - Scottish council elections on 6 May 2027, using the Single Transferable Vote with results produced by the Scottish Government's e-counting system - Northern Ireland Assembly elections, expected around 2027, also using STV - London Assembly, London Mayor and four new combined authority mayoral elections in May 2028 - Irish local elections, expected in June 2029, where all 31 local authorities elect councillors by STV - The Senedd in 2030 and the Scottish Parliament in 2031, using closed list PR and the Additional Member System respectively The May 2026 Senedd and Scottish Parliament elections have already given us real-world examples of how these results are declared and published, which helps. But each system needs its own way of storing the data, getting it into the module, and presenting it so the public can follow it. There's one thing worth being clear about. The module is a communications tool, not a counting tool. It doesn't work anything out for itself. Every figure it displays is entered or imported exactly as declared by the returning officer, whose declaration is always the legally binding result. The module's job is to present that declared record clearly, including the stage-by-stage count tables that the Electoral Commission requires to be published. ## What we learned from the last round of funding The previous approach was simple enough. Councils funded the development time, and we built what was needed. It worked, but it showed up a weakness. When the people scoping an electoral system are developers rather than the officers who run the count, things get missed, and each thing that gets missed means going back and building it again. That reworking costs money, and the money comes from council budgets. ![Screenshot of the elections module used in 2026 local elections in Newcastle](/sites/default/files/styles/rohallion_730x600/public/2026-07/newcastle-2026.png?itok=CLpswufW) ![Screenshot of elections module in local elections in Walsall](/sites/default/files/styles/rohallion_730x600/public/2026-07/walsall-2026.png?itok=vPylH9SK) *The above images show the elections module in use at the 2026 local elections for* [*Newcastle City Council*](https://new.newcastle.gov.uk/election/newcastle-city-council-election-7-may-2026) *(left) and* [*Walsall Borough*](https://go.walsall.gov.uk/your-council/voting-and-elections/election/local-election-results-walsall-borough-2026) *(right).* So we want to do it in a different order this time. Before any development is funded, we want the specification checked by the people who run these elections. We've drafted an initial scoping document covering all the electoral systems above, phase by phase, with what we believe needs to be entered, imported and displayed for each. We'll share it with subject matter experts as they come on board. What it needs now is scrutiny from people who know these counts from the inside. ## The ask: elections expertise, not funding We're looking for elections subject matter experts, most likely elections officers or electoral services managers, from five areas: - England, possibly two people, as London's arrangements differ from the rest of the country - Scotland, where the e-counting system and Weighted Inclusive Gregory transfers need someone who has lived through a count - Wales, covering both council elections and the Senedd's closed list system - Northern Ireland, where community designation adds a requirement no other UK election has - Ireland, ahead of the 2029 local elections, where manual counting and 31 separate returning officers make the reporting picture quite different from Scotland's Input from the Electoral Commission, or the Electoral Commission of Ireland, would be equally valuable. The commitment is modest: reviewing the scope, correcting terminology, and telling us where our assumptions are wrong before those assumptions become expensive. Your elections team already knows this material. We're asking them to lend that knowledge to a piece of open source infrastructure that their own council, and every other council on the platform, will depend on when the results come in. Once the scope is confirmed, funding will be needed to build it. That's the point at which the Community Fund model kicks in again, and councils can decide whether to contribute. But we'd rather ask for money against a specification that elections professionals have signed off than against our best guesses. ## Why this matters for your council If your council is in England or Scotland, the clock is already running. The first elections needing this work arrive in May 2027 on both sides of the border. In England, mayoral elections return to the Supplementary Vote, including two inaugural combined authority contests in Cheshire and Warrington, and Cumbria. In Scotland, all 32 councils go to the polls under STV, and the 2027 e-counting contract requires results in a machine-readable format for the first time. That opens the door to near-real-time results publishing straight from the declared data, but only if the module is ready. If you're in Wales, Northern Ireland, London or a new combined authority area, your dates follow soon after. And if you're an Irish council on LocalGov Drupal, the 2029 locals are closer than they feel. Every council that helps shape this work gets a module that fits how their elections actually run, rather than one adjusted after the fact. ## Get involved If you have an elections officer or electoral services manager who could give a small amount of time to review and shape the scope, we'd love to hear from you. LocalGov Drupal is coordinating this through the [Community Fund](https://localgovdrupal.org/products/community-fund), so the best first step is to [contact Will](mailto:will@localgovdrupal.org) at LocalGov Drupal to register your interest. And if you have questions about the scoping work itself, or want to talk through what's involved before committing anyone's time, get in touch with us directly. We're happy to talk it through.