The new online election tool, the Wahl-O-Mat, is set to go live on February 6, according to the Federal Centre for Political Education. A Forsa poll for the “Stern” and RTL Deutschland found that 41% of Germans plan to use the online service, while 56% do not intend to and 3% are undecided.
Young people aged 18-29 show a particularly high interest in the Wahl-O-Mat, with 62% expressing a desire to use the service, whereas the interest among those over 60 is significantly lower, at 22%. Voters with a higher education, including those with a high school diploma, an Abitur, or a university degree, are more likely to use the online tool, with 57% planning to do so, compared to 22% of those with a lower secondary education.
Among undecided voters, 39% plan to use the Wahl-O-Mat and 65% of those who intend to use the service have done so in the past. The majority of Germans, 51%, have at some point used the service’s feature to compare their own positions with those of the political parties.
Youth and those with a higher education are more likely to have used this feature, with 76% of the young and 79% of those with a higher education having done so. The Wahl-O-Mat has the most fans among Green Party supporters, with 82% having used the service in the past, while the AfD’s supporters are the most skeptical, with only 33% having used the service.
Among those who have used the Wahl-O-Mat, 47% found it useful for their decision and 14% found it very useful.
The data was collected by the market and opinion research institute Forsa on January 23 and 24 among 1,000 people for the “Stern” and RTL Deutschland.