Welcome to Vote Match 2011
Frequently Asked Questions
Updated: 23 June 2011.What is the purpose of Vote Match?
Vote Match recognises that often it is not obvious which candidate best represents your views. So it invites you to answer some straightforward questions and then lists for you the candidates in order of their closeness to YOUR views.
Vote Match has four aims:
- To be fun.
- To inform people about the policy differences between candidates
- To promote debate.
- To encourage people to vote.
What have you achieved?
Previous versions of Vote Match have meant that Vote Match has developed a leading reptation for being the UK's independent source of information about the differences between candidates.
It has proven itself to be an internet phenomenon as well as a great way of improving turnout.
Nearly 2 million people have used the various versions of Vote Match in just 3 years since it was first launched in 2008.
The UK 2010 General Election version had over a million unique users’ complete 1.2 million surveys, with millions more page hits recorded.
Our Vote Match user survey found that
- 99.4% of users found the site to be very or somewhat easy to use
- 75.3% were more aware of the policy differences between the parties after using the quiz
- 57% of users sought out more information about politics after taking the quiz.
- 12.7% of users changed their minds as to who to vote for on the basis of their result.
- 1 in 20 people surveyed (4.5%) said that they voted as a direct consequence of using the quiz.
In the past year Unlock Democracy has been piloting Vote Match for internal elections with great success. As well as the 2010 Labour version (in association with the Guardian) we have recently piloted a version for Leeds University’s 2011 Student Union elections with remarkable results.
- Turnout in Leeds was over 25%, a national record and 15% higher than the national average.
- Preliminary feedback from students showed that just under half of all students used the Vote Match tool.
How does it work?
Users are asked if they agree or disagree with 20-30 statements (e.g. "Britain should leave the EU"). The website then matches the user's views with the responses to these statements provided to us by the candidates standing in the elections.
It does not tell people how to vote! It merely gives them information as to the candidates' policies on specific policy areas, in order to help them make their choice. Vote Match doesn't just give just you a result; it explains why your responses match, and gives you links to where you can go for more information.
Are you saying I should vote for the party or candidate that Vote Match says is my best match?
No. How you vote is entirely up to you!
We can't hope to cover every single issue on the survey, but we do hope Vote Match gives you pause for thought, especially if you don't get the result you were expecting.
We encourage you to take things further by visiting the candidates' websites, reading other guides to the election and exploring the issues.
Is it politically biased?
Vote Match is a politically neutral project. The candidates answer statements themselves and through our methodology we have taken great steps to minimise any unintended bias. Unlock Democracy is a non-politically aligned campaigns organisation.
Ultimately, the best guard against bias is transparency. For this reason we publish how all the candidates have responded and how the calculation is made.
How are the candidate responses on Vote Match determined?
All the answers to the statements are the candidate’s own answers.
How did you select the statements used in the quiz?
For every Vote Match Unlock Democracy run a questions seminar to which a wide and diverse range of key stakeholders are invited e.g. Journalists, bloggers, citizenship and outreach groups etc. Unlock Democracy also surveys members of the public online for their views through Twitter and Facebook.
The candidates are then asked to provide their own answers to these statements. From these responses we prepare a shortlist, filtering out issues where there was uniform agreement or which did not otherwise provide us with discriminating information (for example, if most candidates responded that they were "open minded" on a statement this was generally excluded).
The final list is designed to ensure that there are clear policy differences between all the candidates. You can of course examine this in detail yourself on the results section.
How is my score calculated?
Vote Match works by comparing your responses to the statements with the responses of each of the candidates.
- For each statement where you and the candidate agree (e.g. you both either agree, disagree or are open minded about a statement), you score 0.
- For each statement where you and the candidate completely disagree (e.g. you agree and the candidate disagrees, or vice versa), you score 2.
- For each statement where either you or the candidate is open minded and the other either agrees or disagrees, you score 1.
- If you skip a statement, it is ignored and not included in the calculation
Finally, Vote Match calculates the maximum possible difference between you and the candidates, which depends on the number of statements you skip and the number of issues you rank as important or unimportant. The difference between you and each candidate is then subtracted from the total possible difference and turned into a percentage to give you your final score.
Why don't you have any statements about the personality, competence or record of the candidates?
We are sceptical that a quiz could ever adequately take such issues into account. Personality is highly subjective and the public record of candidates can be potentially misleading - it is perfectly possible that an individual may have changed their mind in the interim.
These are all issues that the media is far, far better at tackling than a project like this. Instead Vote Match focuses on areas of policy which candidates have authority on. This is one of the main reasons why we do not suggest that you necessarily should vote for the candidate Vote Match suggests you are closest to. We encourage you to look into the issues in more detail and draw your own conclusions.
Are you registered with the Electoral Commission?
The Electoral Commission has confirmed that in their view Vote Match qualifies as an online hustings and thus does not fall under the definition of third party campaigning. Nor are there any election expenses implications for those candidates who take part.
How are you funded?
Unlock Democracy, which runs Vote Match and underwrites it, is funded by a combination of individual donations and membership subscriptions, the revenue from its property holding company Rodell Properties Ltd and a number of grants from awarding bodies and institutions.
In the interests of transparency, Unlock Democracy has a policy to publish its full accounts online and to voluntarily declare any donation it receives, which is above the reporting threshold for political parties (£5,000). A full list of these donations can be found on our main website.
In respective of Vote Match past funders have included The Telegraph Media Group, The Guardian, TV3 and the Joseph Rowntree Reform trust Ltd.
How will you use my personal data?
Please refer to our privacy policy for details. We only ask for your email address so we can remind you to vote on polling day and ask for your feedback on the quiz afterwards.
What about the future?
Our aim is to eventually run a Vote Match for every major election in the UK, including future University student elections. However, we are dependent on funding. If you are interested in discussing potential commercial or sponsorship opportunities please do not hesitate to get in touch.
I think I have spotted a factual mistake.
Please get in touch. If there is an error we will rectify as soon as possible. You may however be surprised at some of the parties' or candidates ‘answers’.
Index
- What is the purpose of Vote Match?
- What have you achieved?
- How does it work?
- Are you saying I should vote for the candidate that Vote Match says is my best match?
- Is it politically biased?
- How are the party responses on Vote Match determined?
- How did you select the statements used in the quiz?
- How is my score calculated?
- Why don't you have any statements about the personality, competence or record of the parties?
- Are you registered with the Electoral Commission?
- How are you funded?
- How will you use my personal data?
- What about the future?
- I think I have spotted a factual mistake.