Who are Democracy Volunteers and what is ‘family voting’?
Shortly after polls closed in the Gorton and Denton by-election yesterday an organisation called “Democracy Volunteers” released a statement in which it claimed to have observed “concerningly high levels of family voting” at polling stations in the constituency.
Its director, John Ault, said: “Based on our assessment of today’s observations, we have seen the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10 year history of observing elections in the UK.”
This statement has been widely discussed by journalists, leading to questions over who Democracy Volunteers are and what ‘family voting’ means.
Join 72,953 people who trust us to check the facts
Sign up to get weekly updates on politics, immigration, health and more.
Subscribe to weekly email newsletters from Full Fact for updates on politics, immigration, health and more. Our fact checks are free to read but not to produce, so you will also get occasional emails about fundraising and other ways you can help. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy.
Who are Democracy Volunteers?
Democracy Volunteers describes itself as “a non-partisan, domestic election observation organisation committed to improving the security and accessibility of elections in the UK and abroad.”
It is one of a number of election observer organisations accredited by the Electoral Commission—an independent body which oversees elections.
Observers are entitled by law to attend polling stations, as well as vote counts. The Electoral Commission says independent observation of elections “helps to ensure that elections and relevant referendums are carried out in a way which is transparent, accessible, impartial and secure.”
Accredited election observers in the UK are required to state that they will abide by a code of practice, which requires them to be politically impartial. When processing applications to be observers, the Electoral Commission says it “will make checks in relation to political activity”, and will reject the application “if we are not satisfied when carrying out checks that an applicant is politically impartial”. Electoral observers may have their accreditation revoked if they do not maintain political impartiality.
Democracy Volunteers was also involved in observing the electoral process during the 2024 general election, during which they were present in 204 parliamentary constituencies and more than 1,000 polling stations across the UK.
What is family voting?
‘Family voting’ is the name often given to the practice of accompanying voters into or near polling booths and influencing them into voting in a particular way.
In a press release announcing new elections guidance in 2022, the then-Conservative government described “cross-party concerns about the practice of so-called ‘family voting’ or ‘community voting’ in some areas of the country, where it is alleged that some voters are being pressured by their spouses or partners over who to vote for inside polling booths.”
The press release cited observations made by Democracy Volunteers during an election in Tower Hamlets in May 2022, during which the organisation said that 5% of all voters they observed were either causing, or were affected by family voting and over 85% of those affected were women, predominantly from Asian backgrounds.
Family voting was made illegal by the Ballot Secrecy Act 2023.
What do we know about what happened in Gorton and Denton?
The Democracy Volunteers statement said: “The observer team saw family voting in 15 of the 22 polling stations observed, some 32 cases in total, nine cases in one polling station alone. The team observed a sample of 545 voters casting their vote—meaning 12% of those voters observed either caused or were affected by family voting.”
It said this was “extremely high” compared to other recent by-elections.
The statement did not provide any information about the people involved.
In response to the statement a spokesperson for the acting returning officer said: “Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.”
Mr Ault reportedly told Sky News that observers “did raise the issue of family voting with individual presiding officers during the day before we left or when they were not busy.”
However, Greater Manchester Police has this afternoon confirmed “a report has been made”. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he had reported cases of family voting to the Electoral Commission and the police.