By-Election Track: 2021 Election Cycle

This is a permanent page designed to track consolidated by-election data. It is a work in progress, and will be developed and expanded upon with time.

As a starting point, the page will comprise three core indicators, each of which will be updated after each new batch of by-elections.

The first is a general score board, for all major by-election parties.
The second is a turnout graph, for all by-elections.
The third is a set of party-specific graphs, each with a trend line, that will track the by-election performance of only those parties that have competed in 100 or more by-elections in this cycle.

Please note, and this is important: these are not measures of any party’s national support level, they are a measure of a party’s by-election performance. By-elections cannot be extrapolated to national support levels, they are a select set of samples (often specifically selected by a party because they will do well there), they have only one ballot (ward), they have huge fluctuations in turnout and not all parties compete in all by-elections.

Their most useful attribute is comparative and for identifying trends.

The by-election scoreboard: 2021 by-election cycle