The Wahl-O-Mat has been provided by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, bpb) since 2002. It is an online voting advice tool that allows users to compare their own political positions with those of political parties in Germany.
Anyone using the Wahl-O-Mat can respond to a series of political statements. One example from previous years is: “The state should provide all pupils with free digital devices.” Users then decide whether they agree, disagree, take a neutral stance, or wish to skip the statement. There are 38 political statements in total. After answering all of them, users can weight individual topics differently. This means, for example: Is climate protection more important to you than digitalisation? Or is foreign policy more important than domestic policy?
Morgenpost auf Englisch
In Berlin leben so viele Nationalitäten wie in kaum einer anderen Stadt im Lande. Für all diese Menschen hat die Berliner Morgenpost in Zusammenarbeit mit dem gemeinnützigen Verein „WahlheYmat“ den Newsletter „WahlheYmatPost“ ins Leben gerufen. Wenn Sie oder Ihre Bekannten jeden Donnerstagabend in englischer Sprache spannende Perspektiven auf das Leben in Berlin direkt in Ihrem Postfach finden wollen –
hier können Sie die WahlheYmatPost abonnieren.
The political parties approved to stand in the election have already answered these statements in advance. Based on their answers, users are shown which party has the greatest overlap with their own views. The Wahl-O-Mat is available for state, federal, and European Parliament elections.
However, the Wahl-O-Mat has also faced criticism. Parties can only express their positions on the statements that have been included. Critics repeatedly argue that this oversimplifies or distorts the parties’ positions. Others criticise the fact that certain topics, such as culture, are underrepresented in the Wahl-O-Mat. In recent years, alternatives have also emerged, such as the „Real-O-Mat.“ It examines whether parties’ political proposals can realistically be implemented.
