AUMA’s Pledge stimulated public discourse

For this year’s municipal elections, AUMA developed a Local Democracy Pledge (the Pledge) to promote fair and transparent municipal elections, free from undue partisan and financial influences.

While we did not track candidates, our post-election analysis of Twitter showed that at least 59 candidates running in 20 different local elections committed to the principles of the Pledge. We also heard anecdotally from several candidates who were not on social media that they took the Pledge as a guide for themselves during the elections. We believe the Pledge was instrumental in stimulating public discourse about voters’ expectations of candidates.

Considerable social media activity and news media coverage of the Pledge meant voters were well-informed when speaking with candidates. We estimate more than one million impressions were achieved on Twitter and over 36 million impressions through news media coverage.

We are grateful to all candidates who took the Pledge and committed to defending the principles of local democracy.