1. Technological Opportunities to Improve Turnout in EP Elections
Making the case for a Transnational Voting Advice Application (V.A.A.)
Diego Garzia
University of Lucerne / European University Institute
EP-EUI Policy Dialogue
October 18th, 2018

2. Voting Advice Applications
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. 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

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

10. Results from the 2016 VAA Census
Source: Voting Advice Applications Research Network

11. Diffusion: Users

12. Diffusion: Users

13. % of users among the voting population
Source: Respective National Election Studies

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

15. VAAs as a source of political information
Source: Finnish National Election Study, 2015

16. VAAs and Electoral Participation
Civic voluntarism model: Information and knowledge as pre-conditions for electoral participation
Low information rationality:
Individuals’ probability to cast a vote is inversely proportional to the effort involved in getting informed
VAA-Research:
VAAs provide cheap information and increase interest in and knowledge of political matters
The Mechanism:
Reduction of the representative deficit (MIRROR FUNCTION)

17. Turnout (increase in predicted probabilities, individual level)
Impact on users:
Turnout (increase in predicted probabilities, individual level)
Analysis of respective National Election Studies
Adapted from: Garzia, Trechsel & De Angelis (2017) in Political Communication

18. Turnout (impact on overall turnout rate in % points, aggregate level)
Impact on users:
Turnout (impact on overall turnout rate in % points, aggregate level)
Analysis of respective National Election Studies
Adapted from: Garzia, Trechsel & De Angelis (2017) in Political Communication

19. Source: Garzia, Trechsel & De Angelis (2017)
Source: Garzia, Trechsel & De Angelis (2017). Voting Advice Applications and Electoral Participation: A Multi-Method Study. Political Communication, online first.

20. Thank you! For more information… www.vaa-research.net