This was presented by Diego Garzia from the University of Lucerne at the Impacts of Civic Technology Conference (TICTeC 2017) in Florence on 25th April. You can find out more information about the conference here: http://tictec.mysociety.org

1. Political Matchmaking Online
Changing the Electorate?
Diego Garzia
University of Lucerne &
European University Institute

2. Voting Advice Applications
(VAAs)
VAAs are non-partisan online tools
developed by NGOs, Universities and/or
Media Outlets
VAAs help users casting a vote by
comparing their policy preferences with
those of political parties

4. The VAA compares the user’s profile
with that of each party, and through
a matching algorithm provides a
voting advice to users

8. History in a nutshell
1989 Dutch StemWijzer (paper and pencil)
1998 First online version: 6.500 users
2002 Success > 2 millions
2003 German version (Wahl-O-Mat)

9. Results from the 2016 VAA Census
Source: Voting Advice Applications Research Network
http://www.vaa-research.net

10. Diffusion: Users

11. Diffusion: Users
Source: Respective National Election Studies
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
Germany
Greece
Netherlands
Portugal
Switzerland

12. VAAs as a source of political information
Source: Finnish National Election Study, 2015
59
45
44
29
24
23
19
19
18
14
9
7
5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
TV news
Newspaper articles
TV debates and interviews
Web news
VAAs
Newspaper ads
TV entertainment
TV ads
Radio
Socialmedia (Facebook, Twitter)
Parties' websites
YouTube
Blogs

13. The Making of a VAA
Statement selection
Inclusion criteria for parties/candidates
Coding of party/candidate issue positions
Calculation and display of the results

14. Impact on users
Information costs
Political interest
Political knowledge
Political participation (mirror function)

15. Impact on users
Information costs
Political interest
Political knowledge
Political participation (mirror function)

16. Impact on users:
Turnout
increase in predicted probabilities, individual level
9,3
9
3,2
12
12
1,8
2,1
4,9
10
5,5
5,4
16
FI2003
FI2007
FI2011
CH2007
CH2011
NL2003
NL2006
NL2010
NL2012
DE2009
DE2013
EU2009
Source: Garzia, Trechsel & De Angelis (2017). Voting Advice Applications and Electoral Participation:
A Multi-Method Study. Political Communication, online first.

17. Impact on users:
Turnout
impact on overall turnout rate in % points, aggregate level
2,9
4
1,6
1,2
1,6
0,8
1
2,8
6,3
0,7
1,2
1,1
FI2003
FI2007
FI2011
CH2007
CH2011
NL2003
NL2006
NL2010
NL2012
DE2009
DE2013
EU2009
Source: Garzia, Trechsel & De Angelis (2017). Voting Advice Applications and Electoral Participation:
A Multi-Method Study. Political Communication, online first.

18. Impact on users:
Vote Choice
self-assessment
Source: Respective National Election Studies
0 5 10 15 20 25
FI2003
FI2007
FI2011
FI2015
NL2002
NL2003
NL2010
NL2012
Some FX Strong/Decisive FX

19. Open Questions
Participation
Is tailor-made, verifiable factual information the key
to re-engage voters in times of alternative facts?
Choice
Can issue-based tools like VAAs lead to the de-
personalization of politics in the long run?

20. Current developments
VAAs for low-information, low-saliency races:
⇒ SOCIETLY.COM
Horizontal matching
⇒ EUANDI.EU

21. -US 2016 Primary & Presidential Elections
-Over 500.000 unique users
-Media partnerships: WaPo, Fox News, Huff Post
- All battleground races: 18 Senate + 32 House
-188 candidates and 3760 positions coded
- Large coding team of political scientists
-Currently working on automated coding

23. What is euandi?
EU28
24 languages
121 experts in the country teams
242 political parties
30 statements (28+2)
7260 coded and documented party positions
IN COLLABORATION WITH THE PARTIES

30. Thank you!
For more information…
www.vaa-research.net
www.Societly.com
www.euandi.eu
www.diegogarzia.it