DEMOCRACY
Smartvote favours vote-splitting
Voting assistance tools like Smartvote only have a minimal impact on voting behaviour in Switzerland. They don’t enhance voter turnout, and while they make vote-splitting more likely, not even this makes any real difference.
These spider charts by Smartvote show where politicians stand on specific important societal issues. This should help voters decide how to cast their vote. | Graphic: zVg
Voting assistance platforms can help citizens find out which parties or candidates suit them best. Such Internet tools can make it easier to access information, but do they also change people’s voting behaviour? Smartvote is the most widely used assistance tool in Switzerland, and a new study has shown that, on balance, it has barely any impact on the outcome of elections.
“Smartvote is used on average by 15 to 20 percent of voters”, says Lukas Schmid, the co-author of the study and a professor of empirical methods at the University of Lucerne. “Most of them tend to be young, they have a high level of education, and they are already very interested and well-informed about politics”. Using Smartvote, they can fill out a detailed questionnaire and will subsequently be given a list of those candidates who are most closely matched to their own positions. In 2019, Smartvote was available in 21 Swiss cantons.
“We have been able to prove that Smartvote has no influence on voter turnout, though it does change voter behaviour”, says Schmid. His team analysed the cantonal and national elections from 1995 to 2018. After the tool became available in one particular canton, the voter turnout did not increase significantly. “This suggests that people who use Smartvote are already inclined to vote in elections”. It also takes people time to inform themselves through such a voting assistance platform, and it requires prior political knowledge, says Schmid.
However, it does increase the likelihood that people will engage in vote-splitting – entering the names of candidates from different parties. “In most cases, candidates are simply added to the list of another party. “Introducing Smartvote thereby results in a more diverse election”, says Schmid. “However, this effect is a zero-sum game, at least for the governing parties”. This is because any gains and losses achieved through vote-splitting actually balance each other out again in the end. “In our next step, we would like to investigate more closely how Smartvote can affect the electoral chances of women and minorities”.
