I’m very happy to be sat today at the launch event of MyVote2014, a new voting tool for the European Parliament elections 2014. I’ve been working with Michiel, Joan and Doru at VoteWatch Europe, the folks behind the site, to help them with some of the social media promotion of their tool. Yet while I am professionally involved with the project, I am also very committed – as a citizen – to making sure this tool works, and as many people as possible take the MyVote 2014 test.
The MyVote 2014 tool is the latest in a series of tools of this sort. I first worked on a EP voting tool in 2004, and similar tools existed in 2009, and similar tools have existed for national elections (Stemwijzer, Wahl-o-Mat etc.) but this time it’s different in one crucial way: MyVote 2014 uses data about MEPs have voted in the past (between 2009 and now to be precise), and uses this as the data for the tool. This makes the outcomes of the MyVote 2014 tool more solid than previous efforts. Rather than use aspirational manifestos, the tool is based on how politicians have actually voted, and hence should be more trustworthy. A political party may claim to be green, but if the data shows the opposite, the tool with reflect that.
The test is also available to take in 6 languages – English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Polish. You can now take the test here!
My result: I’m reasonably close to the S&D (which seems accurate enough)
Having reached a similar result to yourself, I was struck by the fact that most UK MEPs had a score of less than 15-20% in comparison to my responses to what were not exactly radical questions. This further confirms my view that Britain really has no place in the EU. In fact, one could almost say that it’s becoming a poison.
Jon, this is great but the mobile interface is dire. Have given up in despair.