Voting can be confusing, especially for young people casting their ballots for the first time, but in Germany they have an app to guide them through the democratic ritual: the Wahl-O-Mat.
Also available online, the digital tool’s name translates roughly to the “voting machine” and has been a hit since its inception more than two decades ago.
Seasoned political geeks too confess they await it like the new edition of a video game, with nine million people using it the day this year’s version was launched, a new record.
The Wahl-O-Mat guides users through the thicket of Germany’s current political headaches and the various parties’ answers to them in the form of a political quiz that spits out a result at the end.
This year, it offers 38 statements ranging from “all motorways should have a speed limit” to “Germany should continue to support Ukraine militarily”.
Users click their way through it and respond with the options “agree”, “no strong opinion” and “disagree”, allowing the algorithm to gauge their political preferences.
Other proposals range from ditching the euro currency and reversing Germany’s nuclear power phase-out to installing cameras with facial recognition software at train stations.
At the end, voters can boost the weighting of issues they feel strongly about before the Wahl-O-Mat presents an answer, suggesting the party that best matches their beliefs.
Many say it is useful to guide them through the lineup of 29 parties asking for their vote — a head-spinning list that can be scaled down to those now represented in parliament.
“I have used it in every election I have participated in so far,” Thure Kulesa, a 21-year-old university student in Cologne, told AFP.
“It allows me to confirm the impressions I have of a party, and I also do it out of curiosity.”
Developed ‘in record time’
Ahead of this election, to be held on February 23, Kulesa was not surprised by the result he got.
“The parties that were at the top of the list were the ones I expected,” he said.
Out of the full party list, his top-ranked were the Pirates, who campaign for online rights and political transparency, while among the major parties, his outlook was best matched by the centre-left Social Democrats and Greens.
The Wahl-O-Mat was launched by the federal agency for political education ahead of the 2002 vote and the number of users has grown with each electoral cycle, topping 21 million last time around in 2021.
The questions are drawn up by a team of 38 university experts, employees at the agency and a panel of 24 young voters, who are the target audience.
The manifesto positions registered in the Wahl-O-Mat were also sent to the parties to be checked.
The original manifesto quiz was inspired by a similar project in the Netherlands, and many democracies now have similar offerings.
The new Wahl-O-Mat this year had to be pulled together “in record time”, said the head of the federal agency for political education, Thomas Krueger.
The haste was due to the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government in November and the announcement that elections would be held about half a year ahead of schedule.
Normally, said Krueger, the team takes nine months to prepare the release of a new Wahl-O-Mat.
