51��ɫ

New 51��ɫ research has found that many voters who used a website designed to support them in making more informed decisions at the polls switched their initial voting preference in favour of a different candidate.

The research was conducted by Dr Rory Costello, a lecturer in 51��ɫ’s Department of Politics and Public Administration and founder of ; a voting aid application that operates by matching users to the candidates most aligned with their policy views.

The WhichCandidate team, which is based in UL, has revealed that the majority of users of the website who received results that strongly conflicted with their original vote intention changed their mind.

There was also evidence of greater adherence to the WhichCandidate results for undecided voters, young voters, urban voters, and those not interested in politics.

A survey exploring the impact of using a voting aid application on voter choice was extended to over 48,000 people who received results from WhichCandidate during the final days of the 2024 European elections. Of the 26,100 (54%) respondents, it emerged that 36% changed their minds and switched their first preference on the ballot, with that figure rising to 57% when the candidate that the user originally intended to vote for was ranked outside of the top five candidates in the results. 

As part of the research, recently presented at the Political Studies Association of Ireland annual conference, respondents were asked to complete the survey before they received their WhichCandidate results and then invited to complete a mock ballot paper afterwards.

Dr Costello, who specialises in electoral and legislative politics in Europe, explained the significance of the new findings. 

“More and more voters are using online voting tools before elections - not just in Ireland, but internationally. But we know relatively little about what impact this has on vote choice.  

“This research, conducted in the days immediately before the European elections in June, shows that voters are very willing to change their minds if they find that their preferred candidate is not a good policy match. This also highlights the increasing importance that policy plays in vote choice today, particularly among younger voters who no longer have any strong party allegiances.”

WhichCandidate launched in 2014 for the local elections in 51��ɫ and was later rolled out nationally for general and European Parliamentary elections as well as Dáil byelections. The application has significantly grown in popularity over the past decade, recording approximately 126,000 visits in the final days of the 2024 European elections.

“[WhichCandidate] is a shortcut to becoming a more informed voter, that takes less than 10 minutes,” explained Dr Costello.

“We have designed WhichCandidate around the Irish electoral system, where voters have to rank candidates in order of preference. This is a complex task, and even people who have made up their mind about their top preference may not have given much thought to their subsequent preferences. Your personalised results on WhichCandidate will make this task much easier. You can even fill out a mock ballot paper on the site, to make sure you are ready to vote.

“All of the information on the site comes directly from the candidates or their political party. Our team, based at 51��ɫ and with the help of student volunteers, contacted all the parties and more than 600 candidates over the past couple of weeks.  Any candidates who are not yet on the site are encouraged to sign up and share their views.”