Projects on Online Electoral Aids

Online Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) are digital tools that prepare the most important campaign topics for voters. They thus fulfil important democratic functions by ensuring transparency and encouraging voters to vote, thus increasing voter participation and the democratic legitimacy of elections. We, at our chair, have already developed numerous electoral aids for the: Bundestag (federal elections), Landtag (State elections), European and local elections.

Münster Kommunahlwahl-Navi
© Kersting

Local election navis 2025
In September 2025, local elections will be held again in NRW, as part of which the chair is developing VAAs (voting advice applications) for selected cities together with the University of Duisburg-Essen.
Our local election navigator is based on the Wahl-O-Mat and the Wahl-Kompass and has further developed these tools.

The Local Election Navi is expected to go live on 10 August 2025.

© Kieskompas

VAA 'Wahlkompass' for the federal election 2025

The Election Compass for the Bundestag election on 23 February 2025 was launched one month (23 January 2025) before the election as the first online election aid. You can find the online election guide here: Wahl-Kompass

  • How do online voting aids work?

    In online electoral aids, users state their position on the most important election campaign topics, which are formulated as theses. As a rule, online electoral aids comprise 20-40 theses. Users are provided with scales for approval or rejection. Subsequently, an individual political agreement with the parties or candidates is calculated on this basis.

  • Local election navigator 2025

    Kommunahlwahl-Navi 2025
    © Kersting

    Online election aids such as the Wahl-O-Mat or the Wahl-Kompass have become established for federal, state and EU elections.

    The Local Election Navi is being developed for the NRW 2025 local elections, the content of which is being developed at the Chair of ‘Local and Regional Politics’ at the University of Münster and the ‘Urban and Regional Innovation and Internet’ (URii) competence centre there.

    Our Local Election Navi is based on the Wahl-O-Maten and the Wahl-Kompass and has developed these tools further.
    The Local Election Navi was already used as a local election check in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic to inform citizens about important local political issues.
    It asks balanced and non-partisan questions on controversial local issues and reflects the respective positions of the parties and candidates. The selection of theses is based on large-scale surveys on local elections among councillors and citizens in NRW.

    We are active in Cologne, Münster and Bielefeld in 2025 and cooperate with the University of Duisburg-Essen, which offers a customised online voting tool in Bochum, Essen, Duisburg and Oberhausen. Our Münster tool is linked to teaching research seminars at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Münster


    FAQ:


    How does the local election check work?
    Voters position themselves on 30 selected theses on the election using five answer categories. The local election navigator then calculates a match with the various political offers.

    For which cities does the local election navigator exist?
    The Local Election Navi is available for Münster, Bielefeld and Cologne.
    We also co-operate with the University of Duisburg Essen, which implements the Local Election Navi in Duisburg, Essen and other cities.
    In all cities, it contains the parties running in the council elections.

    How were the theses selected?
    The local election navi is based on questions from the local election check 2020, i.e. surveys of councillors in NRW and eligible voters. This was updated, the most important topics were selected and around 45 theses were derived, which were sent to the parties and candidates. We then selected the 30 most important theses on the basis of the responses and justifications. Here it was particularly important that a broad spectrum of topics was covered, that different political positions were represented and that differences between the parties and candidates could be recognised.

    How does the Local Election Navi differ from the Wahl-O-Mat and the 2020 Local Election Check?
    Unlike the well-known Wahl-O-Mat, the Local Election Navi offers five response categories. This means that agreement or disagreement with individual theses can be expressed in a more differentiated way and a more precise match with the positions of the individual parties can be calculated.
    The Local Election Check 2020 was an in-house development at the URii of the University of Muenster. In 2025, we are responsible for implementing the content. We also cooperate with the University of Duisburg Essen, which implements the Local Election Navi in Duisburg, Essen and other cities. We jointly use the online voting aid Voto in all cities.

    Why can't I find all the parties standing for election in the local election check?
    We contacted all parties that are running in the elections in the entire city area and have been authorised to do so in advance and asked them to send us their positions and reasons for their theses. Unfortunately, not all of them complied with this request.

    How did the parties and candidates answer the theses?
    The parties had the same answer categories available to them that can also be seen in the tool. It was also mandatory to provide reasons for each position. Users can view and compare these justifications in the local election navigator.

    How is the agreement calculated?
    The agreement (ranking) indicates the extent to which you hold the same positions as the respective candidates or parties.
    For example, if you and a candidate have selected the same answer category (e.g. ‘completely agree’) for a thesis, this is counted as ‘full’ agreement. If you are at least on the same side as the party (e.g. ‘completely agree’ and ‘agree’), this is categorised as partial agreement. The further away your position is from that of a party, the less agreement there is.
    A maximum of 100% agreement can be achieved if the party and user have given identical answers.

    Is the local election check independent?
    The Local Election Navi is a scientific project. No political parties are favoured or disadvantaged or have any influence on the final selection of theses. The theses are deliberately designed in such a way that all political tendencies are represented.

  • Wahl-Kompass (Election-Compass)

    © kieskompas

    The Election-Compass is a scientific Voting Advice Application (VAA), which is beeing developed in a cooperaion of Prof. Dr. Norbert Kersting and Jan Philipp Thomeczek from the University of Münster and Kieskompas from the Netherlands. Kieskompas started specializung in 2006 in the development of online Voting Advice Aplications and has already been responsible for projects in more than 40 different countries. In Germany projects on the municipal, regional and european level have been developed under the name "Wahl-Kompass".

    Currently the Wahl-Kompass is available for the municipal election in Frankfurt (2021). You can find the Wahl-Kompass here!

    Previous Wahl-Kompass editions included:

    Have a look at the report from Sat.1

    Federal Election in Germany 2013/2017/2021/2025
    European Election2009/2014/2019
    Regional Elecion Lower Saxony (2017/2022) and Hesse (2018) as well as North Rhine-Westphalia (2022)
    Municipal Election in Frankfurt (Election of The Lord Major 2018 and 2021)
    Parlament election Ruhr (2020)

    In total the Election-Compass offers more functions, more transparency and more flexibiliy than other voting advice applications. The Election-Compass starts with the party positioning. Partys have to send us their positions in accordance to concrete text evidence, for instance the party manifesto. In the mean time we carry out a scientific positioning of the party with the help of schooled experts. The results of these two procedures are beeing compared and eventuell discrepancies are beeing discussed with the parties. Transparency is our highest value: Without reason no position! Our second caracteristic is the positioning of the users answers to the statements in the political landscape. The coordinates can also be calculated for specific fields seperately for example for the themes environmental protection, economic and social policy.

    You are welcome to e-mail us to:  wahlkompass@uni-muenster.de

  • Online-Wahlhilfen für die Bundestagswahl 2021

    Unter folgendem Link finden Sie Auswertungen und Analysen aus dem Wahl-Kompass zur Bundestagswahl 2021 unseres Lehrstuhls:

    Online-Wahlhilfen für die Bundestagswahl 2021

  • "Kommunalwahlcheck" (Local Election Voting Advice Application) 2021 - (No longer available)

    © Pixabay

    In 2021 the 'Kommunalwahlcheck' was used in Wetzlar, Hessen. Also, the projects 'Hannowahlcheck' and voting advice applications for the municipal elections in the Emsland region were supervised with the 'Stadtjugendringe'.

    The 'Kommunalwahlcheck' will be used for the first time for the local elections 2020 in NRW. It is intended as a low-threshold offer to motivate voters to vote. The municipal election check contains the 30 most important election campaign topics, which are formulated as theses. The parties or candidates for the Lord Mayor have received these theses in advance and have been given the opportunity to position themselves and justify their positions. The local election check will be available in Münster, Essen, Bielefeld, Cologne and Siegen.

  • Polit-Kompass

    Der Polit-Kompass ist eine vom Projekt PRECEDE an der Universität Münster entwickelte politische Orientierungshilfe, die die wichtigsten politischen Konflikte in zwei Bereiche aufteilt und allgemeine Orientierung, auch außerhalb von Wahlen, bieten soll. Auf der Längsachse wird zwischen populistischen/EU-kritischen und unpopulistischen/EU-freundlichen Positionen unterschieden. Die Querachse unterscheidet zwischen linken und rechten Positionen. Zur Bestimmung der Positionen wurde eine Umfrage unter Expert:innen aus der Wissenschaft durchgeführt. Im Polit-Kompass sind CDU, CSU, SPD, FDP, AfD, Linke, Grüne, Die PARTEI, Freie Wähler, ÖDP, Volt und die Piratenpartei enthalten.
    Weitere Informationen gibt es auf der PRECEDE Website.

    Hier geht es zum Polit-Kompass:
    https://polit-kompass.de/de/