Association founded

Decision-making aid wahlkabine.at to be continued

People in polling booths (archive image)

(Bild: APA/Herbert Neubauer)

The online voting aid wahlkabine.at will be continued after all. In October, those responsible discontinued the tool for financial reasons. A new association has now been founded, with SOS Children's Villages and the Association of Austrian Adult Education Centers (VÖV) on board.

A "certain amount of start-up funding" will be provided, said VÖV Secretary General John Evers. "However, this is not something we can guarantee on a permanent basis." wahlkabine.at is therefore still dependent on donations.

This year, the adult education centers are focusing on democracy, and the science-based election booth makes people want to participate, which fits in well with this. SOS Children's Villages is committed to children's rights and the right to participation, explained Birgit Schatz from the human rights organization. Politicians do not perceive the needs of young people as they should.

We cannot guarantee long-term funding.

VÖV-Generalsekretär John Evers

Special consideration for first-time voters
wahlkabine.at aims to be a broad, low-threshold educational offer before elections, especially for young people and first-time voters. The project was launched during the 2002 national elections and the high editorial effort, scientific quality standards, data protection and independence have not changed since then. Each issue requires several months of work. So far, an editorial team and political scientists have been involved.

The guide asks users questions and provides possible answers. The level of agreement with each individual campaigning party is then calculated. To do this, the editors need to know the parties' views on various topics, for example.