Democracy Club, the volunteer-run open data project that provides the UK's only independent aggregate candidate database, had ingested Statement of Persons Nominated (SoPN) data from 81 of 3,074 areas as of 7 April 2026. That is 2.6 per cent of the total, and all 81 are in Scotland. English local authorities, Welsh Senedd constituencies and the six London mayoral contests show zero areas ingested.
SoPN is the legal notice every returning officer publishes after nominations close, listing the candidates standing in each ward, constituency or mayoralty. Democracy Club's volunteers manually enter each notice, area by area. With nominations closing on 9 April for most English councils, the volunteer workforce has a matter of days to move from 81 areas to something approximating the full 3,074 before polling day.
The consequence for pre-election reporting is that no independent, aggregated candidate count exists for the 2026 elections. Any national figure quoted in coverage between now and 7 May is either party self-declared or extrapolated from historical baselines. The gap matters because the Electoral Commission does not publish a central candidate database either; Democracy Club's ingest is the de facto source of truth for researchers, journalists and electoral integrity monitors in the UK. The 5,013-seat English total the database anchors cannot be independently verified against candidate counts until the ingest catches up. A 2.6 per cent baseline at T-30 is not a recoverable position without volunteer surge.
