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Local voters use the Lokal-O-Mat: This is how participatory politics works!
On September 23rd, 2025, 67,500 Düsseldorf residents will use the Lokal-o-mat for the local elections to compare their votes for the OB runoff election.
Local voters use the Lokal-O-Mat: This is how participatory politics works!
In the upcoming local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, around 416,000 people have the local-o-mat used to prepare for the election. In particular, 175,000 people in Cologne and 67,500 people in Düsseldorf accessed the tool. The Lokal-o-mat, a project by the Wahl-O-Mat research team at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, is now being expanded to include a new offer for the upcoming runoff election, in which citizens will have to decide on the office of mayor in both cities.
The innovative tool allows users to examine their personal views on 30 local policy theses and compare them with the positions of the two mayoral candidates. This process is intended not only to improve voter information, but also to encourage voter turnout, which is typically lower in runoff elections. The Lokal-o-mat for the runoff election will be available until election day on September 28, 2025.
How it works and benefits
The functionality of the Lokal-o-mat is clearly structured. Users have the opportunity to answer 30 theses one after the other. Each thesis can be rated as “agree”, “neutral” or “disagree”. It is also possible to skip theses, although skipped theses are not included in the result calculation. At the end of the process, users can also weight theses that are particularly important to them.
After the weighting, the suggested parties can be selected to create a comparison. The results display then shows the correspondence of one's own views with the positions of the selected parties and enables a detailed review. Users can compare each thesis and the corresponding positions of the parties. In addition, the parties' justifications for their answers can be viewed, which promotes a deeper understanding of the respective positions.
Aim of the planned survey
In order to analyze the effects of the Lokal-o-mat, the research team is conducting an anonymous survey of users. The aim is to gain insights into how the tool works and to identify potential improvements that could benefit voters in the future.
The Lokal-o-mat for the runoff election is available on the website www.lokal-o-mat.de/wahl accessible and offers a valuable platform for everyone who wants to actively participate in the democratic process.