Digital assistance for young voters in local elections NRW

In the lead-up to the 2025 municipal elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, various digital voting aids are being introduced to help young voters make informed decisions.

One such tool is the Bonn-o-mat, available in the city of Bonn. This platform presents 30 theses that can be answered with "agree", "disagree", or "indifferent/unknown", and allows users to weight important theses according to their personal priorities. The Bonn-o-mat has already been used to gather theses for the 2025 mayoral and city council elections, with 13 parties running in the Bonn municipal election having previously stated their positions on these theses.

Another digital voting aid, the Municipal Election Navigator, is a collaboration with the University of Duisburg-Essen and serves the cities of Bochum, Duisburg, Essen, and Oberhausen. This tool, now also available in Cologne, contains 30 theses and allows voters to compare their positions with those of the political parties.

The Municipal-Navi, developed by a team at the University of Münster, is available in several municipalities in NRW, including Münster, Bielefeld, Paderborn, and Cologne. Similarly, the local-o-mat is available for ten municipalities in NRW: Aachen, Coesfeld, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Gütersloh, Haan, Cologne, Krefeld, Münster, and Witten.

In Solingen, the Sol-o-Mat, developed by the Solingen Youth Council, targets young voters with 20 theses. Meanwhile, Wahl Buddy, developed in Dortmund, focuses on political themes of the younger generation.

Preparations for local Wahl-O-Mats are also underway in the city of Brandenburg an der Havel, with the Wahl-O-Mat for the mayoral election on November 9th going online in early October.

Digital voting aids are not limited to North Rhine-Westphalia, as they are also starting before the municipal elections in Lower Saxony. In Düsseldorf, the Düssel-O-Mat allows voters to check their stance on 31 political theses, with the ability to weight particularly important theses.

It's worth noting that in eight federal states, municipal elections took place alongside the European election on Sunday. Gudrun Mallwitz is calling for elections on September 14th in North Rhine-Westphalia for mayors, city councils, and municipal councils.

These digital voting aids aim to make the election process more accessible and engaging for young voters, ensuring they have the information they need to make informed decisions and participate actively in the democratic process.

Digital assistance for young voters in local elections NRW