Peter Facey (London, Unlock Democracy): The recent Audit of Political Engagement from the Hansard Society found that 55% of respondents felt they knew not very much or nothing at all about politics. There has been a lot of debate about how the Internet can help in promote involvement in politics and a number of exciting innovations. But in reality little of it directly connects to candidates and political parties and to the act of voting. That is why Unlock Democracy has teamed up with the Dutch Think Tank Instituut voor Publiek en Politiek (IPP) to launch Vote Match.
The idea is to provide voters and prospective voters a way of understanding the differences between candidates and parties standing in a election, and then to point them to where they can find more information.
IPP have been developing Vote Match (known as Stemwijzer in the Netherlands) since 1988, originally in book form. In the last Dutch elections, an estimated 35% of the electorate used their website. As well as the Netherlands, Vote Matches have been developed for the German, French, Bulgarian and Swiss elections Surveys in the Netherlands and Germany found that 80% found it to be a trustworthy tool.
At its most basic Vote Match is a short quiz that voters can fill in to match their views with the views of the election candidates. In the interests of minimising any unintended biases, the tool is intended to be as transparent as possible:
- Candidates and parties will be asked to provide their own answers based on their own published policy.
- Users can include and/or exclude parties and candidates from the survey as they see fit and add extra weight to those issues, which they consider to be important.
- The website does not simply give you an answer - it shows you how the results are calculated.
Vote Match is not about telling people how to vote and as organisation we do not support any political party. Rather, it is about encouraging voters to consider which issues are important and informing them about where the parties and candidates stand.
Our big challenge is make vote match "go viral" and be promoted by users emailing their friends and family. Early signs are that it seems to be working with 2,000 people having within hours of it being launched.
We launched it for the London elections in the hope that it will help encourage voters to think about the issues at stake and in our own small way help increase turnout from the 36% last time. Our ultimate aim is to have a vote match for every major election in the UK.
