Local Elections in North Rhine-Westphalia 2025: A Comprehensive Look at the "Voting Buddies" in Summary
In about six weeks, approximately 13.7 million people in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) will participate in the municipal election. To aid voters in making informed decisions, digital voting assistants have been activated in many municipalities for the NRW 2025 election.
One such digital voting assistant is the "Düsseldorf Wahlhelfer", which has been activated in the city of Düsseldorf. The topics covered by the "Düsseldorf Wahlhelfer" include video surveillance in the old town and the new construction of the opera house. Young people from Düsseldorf chose the topics for this digital decision aid in a workshop.
Similarly, the "Wahl-Buddy" has been developed in Dortmund with 25 points by youth and young voters, together with the Youth Ring. The Sol-O-Mat in Solingen is intended to make the choice easier for voters, with the Solingen Youth Council formulating 20 theses that particularly concern young voters.
In addition to these, the Wahl-O-Mat research team at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf has developed another digital decision aid called the local-o-mat for ten cities. There will also be a local online voting aid in Essen, called the "Kommunalwahl-Navi". The "Kommunalwahl-Navi" is tailored specifically to Essen and focuses on local themes in addition to general theses.
However, a comprehensive list of NRW municipalities participating with local digital decision aids or specific online voting assistants for the 2025 municipal election is not publicly available. The search results primarily focus on broader election context, political developments, and technological initiatives in specific small communities rather than a detailed registry of local digital voting tools.
It's worth noting that 16-year-olds can vote in the municipal election in NRW. The "Düsseldorf Wahlhelfer" allows young voters to compare their positions with those of the parties on 30 municipal political theses. The local-o-mat and the "Kommunalwahl-Navi" offer similar functionalities.
The local-o-mat will launch in mid-August for the cities of Aachen, Coesfeld, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Gütersloh, Haan, Cologne, Krefeld, Münster, and Witten. The "Kommunalwahl-Navi" is already online for Münster, Bielefeld, and Paderborn. It will be activated in mid-August for Duisburg, Oberhausen, Bochum, and Cologne.
While the specific details about the digital voting assistants in each city may vary, their purpose remains the same - to provide voters with easy-to-understand information about the political positions of the parties, making it easier for them to make informed decisions during the election.
The political general-news regarding the municipal election in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) highlights the activation of digital voting assistants, such as the "Düsseldorf Wahlhelfer" and the "Kommunalwahl-Navi", to aid voters in making informed decisions. These digital decision aids cover various local topics, with young voters plays a significant role in choosing the topics for some of these tools, like the "Düsseldorf Wahlhelfer" and the local-o-mat.
