In 1968, Elvis Presley famously asked for “a little less conversation” and “a little more action, please” – finally, some 58 years later, Jersey-based tech executive Tom Coward is hoping to have answered his call.
Tom, together with his friend Ed Prow – the managing director of brand and design agency The Potting Shed – has dreamt up a website designed to cut through the seemingly endless of noise of election-cycle bluster.
The idea was born when he and his project-partner found themselves “shocked” to find out that “voter turnout [in Jersey] was the lowest in all OECD member and partner countries in 2022”.
Indeed, only 17% of people under 35 and 16% of tenants voted in the 2022 election, according to the Policy Centre Jersey.
Overall turnout was just 41.7%, making it the election with the third lowest turnout in the last 30 years.
A report compiled by the independent thinktank found that the main reasons that people gave for not voting were that it wouldn’t have made a difference, they didn’t trust the political system, they’re not interested in the election and they didn’t know enough about the candidates.
Mr Coward attributed some of the ongoing voter apathy to the sheer admin involved in wading through countless manifestos and keeping up-to-date with never-ending hustings.
To help streamline the process, he has built an easy-to-use website which “identifies which Senators most closely align to a voter’s views”.
All Islanders have to do is answer 13 fairly straightforward policy questions, thus “saving people from having to listen to hustings or read manifestos”.
“We’re keen to lower the barrier to entry for people to get the information they need to assess the candidates, and inspire more people to vote,” Mr Coward explained.
The 13 questions are divided into cost of living, housing, government spending, healthcare, economy, young people, environment, population and immigration, government accountability, elderly and social care, children and families, community safety and external relations.
Users are then asked to rate how important each topic is to them on a scale of 1-5 before being provided with their “candidate match”.
