Vote Match goes from strength to strength
Previous versions of Vote Match have meant that Vote Match has developed a leading reputation for being the UK's independent source of information about the differences between candidates.
It has proven itself to be an internet phenomenon as well as a great way of improving turnout. Nearly 2 million people have used the various versions of Vote Match in just 3 years since it was first launched in 2008.
The Independent's John Rentoul described it as "a digital democracy breakthrough". The Good Web Guide commented that "The beauty of this site is its simplicity." Ekklesia: "Vote Match... is helping to change the electoral landscape in Britain,"
The UK 2010 General Election version had over a million unique users’ complete 1.2 million surveys, with millions more page hits recorded.
Our Vote Match user survey found that
- 99.4% of users found the site to be very or somewhat easy to use
- 75.3% were more aware of the policy differences between the parties after using the quiz
- 57% of users sought out more information about politics after taking the quiz.
- 12.7% of users changed their minds as to who to vote for on the basis of their result.
- 1 in 20 people surveyed (4.5%) said that they voted as a direct consequence of using the quiz.
The Telegraph version of the General Election Vote Match won the Association of Online Publishers 2011 Award for Innovation. Vote Match was also nominated for the Nominet Internet Award for Empowering Young People and Citizens.
In the past year Unlock Democracy has been piloting Vote Match for internal elections with great success. As well as the 2010 Labour version (in association with the Guardian) we have recently piloted a version for Leeds University’s 2011 Student Union elections with remarkable results.
- Turnout in Leeds was over 25%, a national record and 15% higher than the national average.
- Preliminary feedback from students showed that just under half of all students used the Vote Match tool.
Vote Match is based on StemWijzer, developed by the Institute for Political Participation in the Netherlands. Originally a paper-based quiz started in 1988, one in three Dutch voters used StemWijzer in the run up to the 2006 Parliamentary elections. The German Wahl-O-Mat was used by one in five voters in the run up to the 2005 Parliamentary elections.
Past Vote Matches: