Frequently asked questions

What is smartvote?

smartvote is an online voting aid. Using a questionnaire on various political topics, voters can compare their positions with those of candidates and/or parties and, on this basis, obtain a voting recommendation.

 

How does smartvote work?

Before the elections, candidates answer the smartvote questionnaire. This allows their political profile to be recorded. Voters can then answer the same questions on the smartvote website. Their answers are compared with those of the candidates. A list is then generated showing which candidates or lists are most politically aligned with them.

 

What are the advantages of smartvote for voters?

smartvote aims to support voters in their voting decisions by providing them with a better information base. In addition, the online voting aid creates transparency and offers an overview of the political positions of the candidates.

 

What are the advantages of smartvote for candidates?

The widespread use of smartvote makes candidates visible to voters. Around one in five voters uses smartvote and around 85% of candidates have a smartvote profile (2023 National Council and Council of States elections). smartvote also stands out thanks to its many years of experience, complete transparency of its methods, close scientific ties to universities and technical colleges, and compliance with all standard international quality standards for online voting aids.

 

How often is smartvote used?

Over 2.1 million voting recommendations were issued in the 2023 National Council and Council of States elections. Around one in five voters used smartvote at that time. Over 4,900 candidates completed the smartvote questionnaire, which corresponds to a participation rate of 85%. In addition to national elections, smartvote is also used in many cantonal and municipal elections.

 

How is the questionnaire developed?

In the first phase, ideas and suggestions for the questionnaire are collected. Non-binding suggestions can come from various sources: political parties, interest groups, citizens, the media and, of course, the smartvote team itself. The questions are then selected in several rounds. The aim is to develop a questionnaire that is as balanced as possible and covers all relevant topics. Finally, the specific wording is determined and explanations are written before the questionnaire is pre-tested. Further information can be found in the methodology section.

 

Why are some important topics not addressed in the smartvote questionnaire, and who decides which topics are important and which are not?

The assessment of the importance of topics is subjective. Parties, citizens, the media and academia all consider different topics to be particularly important. The aim of smartvote is to create a questionnaire that is as balanced as possible. The smartvote questionnaire focuses on topics on which many candidates have different opinions and which are of interest to a wide audience. Other criteria for including topics are their topicality and, especially in municipal and cantonal elections, their local importance. 

 

How are the candidates' political positions determined?

A few weeks before the elections, the candidates answer the smartvote questionnaire, which covers a wide range of current political issues. This allows their positions to be recorded and their political profiles to be created.

 

How are the results calculated?

On the smartvote website, users answer the same questionnaire that the candidates have already answered. The answers are then compared with those of the candidates or lists using the city block model. As a result, smartvote presents each user with a specific ranking of all participating candidates or lists, placing those with the best match at the top of the list. The more questions a user answers, the more accurate their match will be. Further information can be found in the methodology section. 

 

How are the results for lists calculated?

If an election is a list election, voters can also have a list election recommendation generated for them. The same procedure is used as for election recommendations for individual candidates. The only difference is that for each question, the answers of all candidates on a list are aggregated into a uniform ‘list answer’ (arithmetic mean of the candidates' answers) before the calculation of the match begins. 

 

How should I interpret the percentage voting recommendation?

The voting recommendation (in %) is the agreement value used to rank the candidates. It is calculated using the City Block model. To present the results in an easily understandable way, the agreement value is listed as a percentage. It is important to note that this is a geometric measure of agreement. Therefore, the value cannot be directly considered as the proportion of questions on which a user agrees with a candidate's answers. A match of 70% does not mean that a candidate gave the same answers as the user in exactly 70% of the questions. Further information on the voting recommendation can be found in the methodology. 

 

How does weighting affect my results?

Users have the option of weighting their answers. Weighting is taken into account when calculating their results. It allows users to indicate which topics are more or less important to them. If a user weights a question with a plus sign (+ = 2), the answer counts twice when calculating the match. If a user weights a question with a minus sign (- = 0.5), the answer counts for half. Weighting only affects the voting recommendation, not the graphical representations (smartspider, smartmap). Further information can be found in the methodology section.

 

How can I interpret the smartspider? How is the smartspider calculated?

The smartspider graphics depict values and political attitudes based on eight thematic axes. A value between 0 and 100 can be achieved for each axis. A value of 100 represents strong agreement with the stated goal of the corresponding axis. A value of 0 means that the stated goal does not receive any agreement. The following should be noted:

• The smartspider graphs do not influence the voting recommendation, but represent an independent positioning of the candidates. 
• Only some of the questions in the smartvote questionnaire are included in the calculation of the smartspider graphs, as not all questions are assigned to one of the eight axes. 
• The smartvote questionnaire is adapted for each election, which is why the smartspider axes are not always based on the same questions. A direct comparison of smartspider graphs from different elections is therefore not methodologically permissible.

Further information can be found in the methodology section. 

 

Why does my smartspider graph differ so greatly from that of a candidate who was recommended to me?

Only some of the questions in the smartvote questionnaire are included in the calculation of the smartspider graph, as not all questions can be assigned to the eight axes. In contrast, all questions are taken into account for the voting recommendations. Therefore, it is possible that a voter's smartspider may differ significantly from that of a candidate, despite a high matching score (%).

 

How can I interpret the smartmap? How is the smartmap calculated?

The smartmap graphic represents the political positions of candidates, parties or lists in the form of a two-dimensional political map. All questions in the smartvote questionnaire serve as the data basis. The closer the points are to each other, the more similar the political profiles are. It should be noted that due to the fixed square representation of the smartmap, no conclusions can be drawn about the statistical weight of the dimensions shown from their height or width. Further information can be found in the methodology section. 

 

Why are some candidates not included in the platform? Why do some candidates not have any answers?

If candidates want to be included in the smartvote voting recommendation, they must answer the entire questionnaire. Parties and candidates who have not completed and confirmed the questionnaire in full will therefore not be included in the voting recommendation. Before the election begins, all parties and candidates are contacted where possible and informed about the possibility of participating.

 

Why are some questions already answered when I switch between elections?

Some elections on the smartvote platform are linked, for example the National Council and Council of States elections. So when you fill out the questionnaire for the National Council elections, your answers to questions that are identical in both elections are automatically transferred to the Council of States elections. This means you don't have to answer the same question several times. You can change your answers at any time. 

 

How is smartvote financed?

smartvote is mainly financed by service revenues (contributions from parties and candidates/contributions from media partners). smartvote also receives support contributions and donations. Despite these contributions, smartvote still relies heavily on unpaid work by project staff. Further information on the financing of smartvote can be found here.

 

What happens to the data collected on the smartvote.ch voter page?

Responses to the smartvote questionnaire, personal data provided when creating a voter account or information provided when participating in online surveys are only evaluated and published in anonymised and aggregated form. This ensures that individual users cannot be identified. In order to protect sensitive personal data, we comply with the legal provisions of the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), the Ordinance to the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), the Telecommunications Act (TCA) and other data protection regulations. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.