About Votematch Europe

Votematch Europe offers a voting aid application (VAA) for the EU elections for each and every EU member state. With this tool, voters in all EU countries can discover which political parties best match their own opinions. They can also see the extent to which parties in other European countries would fit them. In this way, they get a sense of the diversity and commonalities of European political parties and a deeper understanding of the dynamics of European politics.  

What’s the use of a voting aid application? 

Voters often have a hard time finding objective information about the positions of candidates during elections. They may lack knowledge about political parties and the positions of these parties on relevant issues in the European elections. That lack of knowledge is an important cause of lower voter turnout. VAAs contribute to increased knowledge about candidates, parties, and positions throughout the EU. They do so by making voters indicate their own positions on policy issues and then comparing those answers to the answers given by parties and candidates. Research shows that VAAs are one of the most effective ways to motivate people to go out and vote. 

How does this European VAA work? 

All participating VAAs use national statements and, next to these, a common set of 15 statements that are sent to all parties in Europe. After filling out the VAA, users first get the result for their own country. With one further click, they can also see their matches with parties in all other EU countries, ranked from best to lowest. Users can click on all the national VAAs and get more information about parties and to which European affiliation in the European Parliament these parties belong. In this way, voters get informed about the intricacies of European politics in a low-key and personal manner. It helps them to better understand European politics and their own and their country’s position within it, thereby increasing their confidence in their own political effectiveness and promoting the creation of a European political space.  

An example of how this worked in 2019 can be found here: https://eu-eng.votematch.net/. (You will have to answer 30 statements (in English) of the Dutch VAA for 2019.) 

Contact 

Want to know more? Get in touch with ProDemos (the organization behind the Dutch VAA  ‘StemWijzer’) or contact your own country’s voting aid application (see the list of participants below). 

Participants 

VoteMatch Europe consists of these participating VAAs: