Online tool helps with your voting decision in Mannheim

The “Voto” website, co-developed by Mannheim-based data scientist Thilo Dieing, helps undecided citizens to make their voting decision.

Eligible voters in Mannheim aged 16 and over can choose between 13 different parties and initiatives in the local elections on June 9. These parties and initiatives offer a variety of answers to current local political issues. Should the public library, for example, be relocated to N2? Or should the municipal council stick with the renovation of the National Theater despite rising costs? If you don’t have answers to these questions yet, you can use the new online tool Voto. The tool classifies the substantive positions of the candidates for election and helps you to compare them with your own positions.

The Germany-wide election assistance project is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Christian Stecker from the Technical University of Darmstadt and Thilo Dieing from the University of Mannheim. Voto is not only available for Mannheim, but also for thirty other municipalities across Germany, including Konstanz, Mainz and Halle.

“Our objective is to introduce people who have little time to politics and motivate them to vote,” explains Dieing, who is a researcher and academic staff member at Prof. Dr. Heiner Stuckenschmidt’s Chair of Artificial Intelligence. This is to strengthen local democracy. “Of course, the tool cannot replace a thorough political analysis, but it is a good starting point,” says the data scientist.

Voto is available for the second time since 2019 in Mannheim. It comprises 33 theses on various local political issues such as transport transition, law and security, immigration and housing. For each of the theses, users can choose between five different possible answers. Voto is available at https://app.voto.vote/kowa24-mannheim.

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