Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Have a question about the site? If it's not answered here, email gareth@howtovote.co.uk and I'll add it, if appropriate.

Click on each question below to expand and reveal the answer.

1. What does the 'Key Issue' option do?

   If you tick 'Key Issue' next to a question then all of the answers to that question are given extra importance - to be precise, they are counted as if they were twice as important as non-key issue answers.

2. What do the coloured bars on the results page mean?

   Coloured bars on the results page show the relative performance of each party in that policy area. The wider the bar for a party, the more its policies align with your choices. Blue represents the Conservative party, red is for Labour, yellow for the Lib Dems, green for the Green Party, and purple for UKIP.

3. How can a party be the overall winner when it doesn't win the most policy areas?

   The overall result gives each question equal weight, not each policy area. Your result therefore depends on the number of questions you choose to answer in each policy area, and of course the policy areas do not all have equal numbers of questions. Behind the scenes, How To Vote assigns positive and negative points to each answer (if a party agrees with a policy, or actively disagrees) and sums them up to find the overall winner. It also does this for each section, but since the sections vary in size (and not all questions may have been answered) it won't always be the case that the party which won the most sections will have the most points overall. Also, if you label a question as a 'key issue' then it is given a double weighting. This system provides the fairest overall result because you then decide by virtue of which questions you answer precisely which policies are relevant to you. The detailed breakdown by policy area is also provided so you can see in more detail where you agree, or disagree, with each party.

4. How are the questions chosen?

   The questions have been chosen by carefully comparing the party manifestos to find areas where their policies directly contrast with one another. These differences have then been summarised in brief questions and answers, allowing you to choose based on party policy without having to read large amounts of text.

5. Why isn't there a question on a particular topic?

   The site only includes questions which clearly distinguish between parties. If there is no question on a significant topic then this is most likely to be because the parties fundamentally agree on what to do.

6. Why is there no regional version of the site for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland?

   I run the site as a spare-time project, and receive no funding or any other form of remuneration for running the site. With limited time to work on the site, I decided to concentrate on providing a detailed survey for the largest number of voters. I hope that those voters who might be minded to vote SNP, Plaid Cymru or any other non-nationwide party may already be sufficiently aware of those parties' policies to make an informed decision without using the How To Vote survey. The site states clearly on the front page that it only covers nationwide parties.

7. How is How To Vote funded?

   I run the site as a spare-time project, and receive no funding or any other form of remuneration for running the site. See 'About How To Vote' for more information.