VoteMatch

One of our most successful products in the Netherlands is VoteMatch (in Dutch: StemWijzer), a voting aid application (VAA).

VoteMatch was first developed in 1989 as a test on paper to assist voters in understanding the positions of political parties and the key issues of an election. Over time, it evolved into a digital tool, used by millions of Dutch voters to help them determine which political party aligns best with their own viewpoints.

Users enter their opinions on approximately thirty propositions, and the programme then calculates which parties most closely match their perspectives. As a result, VoteMatch serves as a powerful toolfor gaining insight into political parties’ stances on a wide range of issues. This is particularly important, as lack of such knowledge is often discourages people from voting.

A VoteMatch for every election

ProDemos produces a VoteMatch at its own initiative in the run-up to the Dutch and European parliamentary elections. These VoteMatches attract millions of users, 7.8 million for the 2021 national elections, close to 60% of the entire electorate. Additionally, ProDemos also develops ‘local’ VoteMatches on behalf of municipal and provincial governments.

In other countries

ProDemos has contributed to the development of VoteMatches at international level as well. Find more information about our current offerings for international VoteMatches (pdf).

This is an overview of some of our activities:

  • Collaboration with the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (BpB) resulted in the development of the Wahl-O-Mat, the German counterpart of the StemWijzer, in 2002.
  • During the 2007 French presidential and parliamentary elections, a voting aid was put online that was based on the technology and methodology of the Dutch StemWijzer programme. This voting aid could be found at www.monvoteamoi.fr.
  • ProDemos supported the development of the Izboromat voting aid for elections in Boznia-Herzegovina in 2015-2016.
  • In 2019, we assisted Vice Media and Pacifista! Colombia in developing of VoteMatches for regional elections. The VoteMatches were available in three districts.
  • ProDemos has also developed StemWijzers for local, regional or national elections in Aruba, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chile, Ecuador, Georgia, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, Libya, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Peru, Suriname, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the UK and the US.

European cooperation

Since 2009, ProDemos has collaborated with partners to develop VoteMatches for the European Parliament elections, resulting in several improvements and innovations.

European Parliament: In 2009, ProDemos made a special ‘pan-European’ StemWijzer. The voting advice directed users to one of the European parties or groups. Furthermore, national versions of VoteMatch were produced for twelve of the EU Member States.

For the 2014 and 2019 European Parliament elections, ProDemos partnered with numerous organisations to create a VoteMatch featuring different questions for each country alongside similar questions for all countries. This allowed users to identify parties in other countries that best aligned with their preferences. A similar project is currently in progress for the 2024 European Parliament elections.

Collaboration between ProDemos, BpB, TreeCompany in Belgium and Alltinget in Denmark has led to cooperative development of tools such as YoungVoice, a voting aid for young people, and a party comparison tool.