AIBU to want to be able to email local council election candidates?

[Pluvia]

I live in an area where the Labour council has done a good job over the last few years and I would normally automatically vote for the local Labour council candidate. But Labour's stance on women and a couple of other issues worries me and I have no idea what any of them actually believe in. There have been no leaflets, no hustings are being held and I've realised that actually, this really matters to me. I can't control what's going on in the Ukraine or Afghanistan, but perhaps I can make an informed decision about my local area.

I decided to ask a few questions of all the candidates standing in my ward, so I started searching for contact details (the election's just a month away) and all I could find was postal (snail mail) addresses. I called the council to ask for email addresses and someone there confirmed that snail mail was the only way of contacting them. I know that the guy who is acting as agent for the local Labour candidate disagrees with me on several big issues. He's hard left. I'm older, feminist and more centrist and he's made his dislike and disapproval of me very clear on several occasions. I think my chances of the candidate ever getting to see a paper letter I'd sent would be very slim. I'm pretty sure he'd mislay it, as he has other communications.

My guess is that finding paper and and envelopes, trying to handwrite after years of typing and then investing 68p in a second class stamp is designed to deter people from contacting candidates. This isn't democratic, is it? When you can do so many other things on line, how come you can't email candidates in what may be a crucial election? The council says they are required to do this and it's the electoral authority that insists on it. Surely this needs to be updated for the 21st century?

Most candidates use social media to campaign..........the local Facebook pages are full of them in my area, do yours have no online presence?

They'll have a Facebook page

Thanks. I'm not on FB or Twitter (personal/ political choice). The person in charge of the election at the council didn't mention this to me. I'll see if I can ask someone who's on FB to ask some questions on my behalf.

Any email for any candidate will be forwarded via the local council office. Send to Members Office and ask to forward.

Why don't you just sign up to FB or twitter yourself? you can be as anonymous as want & just use it for this 1 propose then deactivate or just leave it, you don't need to go bother someone else to do your bidding for you.
You managed to sign up on here, it's no harder

I’m a candidate. Also labour :-)

My contact details are published on my leaflets, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and I’m knocking on doors.

I’d welcome contact - people can access my email, phone number etc but I haven’t had any contact via those means. We are trying very hard to speak to everyone in the ward.

Plenty of doors slammed in my face though!

@user1471447863

Why don't you just sign up to FB or twitter yourself? you can be as anonymous as want & just use it for this 1 propose then deactivate or just leave it, you don't need to go bother someone else to do your bidding for you. You managed to sign up on here, it's no harder

Listen to this podcast for the reason why. I won't compromise on this:

www.honestlypod.com/podcast/episode/1f94f74c/why-the-past-10-years-of-american-life-have-been-uniquely-stupid

I am surprised they are not going door to door in your area, they certainly do in our area, a bit nearer the date of the election perhaps.
The Lib Dems have been very sucessful here because (I think) of this policy, and they certainly do act on peoples concerns for the area.
Local elections are certainly very different to national ones.

@longwayoff

Any email for any candidate will be forwarded via the local council office. Send to Members Office and ask to forward.

That wasn't offered as an option by the person responsible at the council. Nor was the information that candidates can be contacted via social media. Perhaps they assume that everyone's on FB.

I've emailed a friend with the three questions I'd like to ask and she's going to forward to all the candidates via FB.

I live in a very out-of-the-way spot despite being only 8 miles from a city. You have to come down an unsurfaced road to get to me and the five other houses down here. Having been a canvasser for general elections several times in the past, I understand why no one comes round knocking.

I'm sorry to hear that you're getting doors slammed in your face, Temporaryanonymity. Is it Labour in general or are you getting pushback on Labour's inability to define a woman?

It's always possible to contact a Councillor via the appropriate council. It's effectively their workplace. I guess people are expected to know that.

*Listen to this podcast for the reason why. I won't compromise on this:

www.honestlypod.com/podcast/episode/1f94f74c/why-the-past-10-years-of-american-life-have-been-uniquely-stupid*

It's an hour and 39 minutes long, @Pluvia. Any chance of a precis?

I don't use FB any more because they refuse to do anything about the amount of hate speech etc on their and I don't want Zuckerberg selling my data.

And it's been disabled due to lack of use now!

At 1h39 mins i'm not going to bother.

You can make up a name, lie about your age, use a disposable email address - your not having to sell your soul or promise to sacrifice your first born or anything awkward like that, it's really not that big a deal.
So much local info is now published through facebook etc that it's foolish not to be if you care about accessing that info.

@LakieLady

*Listen to this podcast for the reason why. I won't compromise on this:

www.honestlypod.com/podcast/episode/1f94f74c/why-the-past-10-years-of-american-life-have-been-uniquely-stupid*

It's an hour and 39 minutes long, @Pluvia. Any chance of a precis?

I don't use FB any more because they refuse to do anything about the amount of hate speech etc on their and I don't want Zuckerberg selling my data.

And it's been disabled due to lack of use now!

Joanthan Heidi speaking to Bari Weiss about how FB, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok etc are affecting young peoples' brains and behaviour and putting democracy at risk.

I don't like what's happened to a great many of my friends and former friends who are addicted to social media. I don't need to be told how to create a false account etc. I've had FB and Twitter accounts and I've come off them on pricipal. Not going to be forced back.

Email to the HQ address with specific request to forward to the named person you want to receive it. Worked for me.

The one person I'm most interested in is an independent former Labour woman expelled from the party a couple of years ago for her transphobic views. The council have given me her home address to write to which seems a little...weird.

It's up to individual candidates and parties to publicise contact details. Some will be better at doing this than others. Or more resources to do this than others.

Some political parties will have local or regional offices which may be able to provide contact details.

Watch out for leaflets as they often include contact details.

As others have said though your best bet is social media. But you don't want to do that. So 🤷‍♀️

The council is there to run the election and not to facilitate interactions between the electorate and candidates.

Just reporting back. I've found one of the candidates on FB and asked questions there.

Another has a very common name for this part of the world and there are dozens if not hundreds of matches. My friend has been going through them but still hasn't found anyone of that name who is publicising that they are standing as a candidate in the council elections.

I've found a back-channel through Labour Party friends to contact the Labour candidate without having to go via her agent, who will presumably be monitoring her FB page as carefully as he does her mail.

I've never taken much interest in local elections before but this is starting to trouble me. Councillors can have a major effect on the everyday lives of people in their locality. It should be easier to know what they stand for.

@pluvia

The door slamming isn’t necessarily down to me being from the Labour Party. I’ve been doing this for years and some people are just rude.

I live in a ward with approximately 15,000 people and with the exception of a few streets, we’ve knocked every door in the ward and delivered three leaflets. Yet people still tell me I haven’t when I know for a fact I have!

I mostly use Facebook, Twitter and instagram just for things like this. Also keeping up with updates from the pta and child activities. You can make accounts and just use them sparingly.