The Wahlometer Story

It's a bit of a humorous piece but fairly serious in political nature.

The wiz kids of the political world in Germany decided in 2002 to develop this on-line question system which would help an "idiot" decide who to vote for.....based strictly on the platforms of the various parties.

If you were pro-marijuana, pro-immigration, anti-taxation.....then the questions would lead you to the right party to vote for.

In theory, it's probably the best way to consider how to vote.  It doesn't mean that marijuana legislation will get passed or the immigration issue will get resolved.....but you gave your vote to the crowd with the best odds of making you happy.

So, in most all elections....not just federal, but also state-level....in Germany.....the Wahl-O-Mat is the tool that helps you decide who to vote for.

Well....in this election in Mecklenburg for this upcoming weekend....it's an odd thing.

The SPD and CDU met months ago (they won't admit this in public that it was a joint meeting) but they decided that they would refuse to participate or help the Wahl-O-Mat people form the 20-odd question format on platform issues.  Zero participation.   So, there is NO Wahl-O-Mat for Mecklenburg's election.  You can ask journalists about this and they just grin.  The thinking is that if you don't help on this issue.....then you don't give any votes to AfD.  It's that silly but they are absolutely serious.

So.....some smart geeks working for AfD went to work.  They built their own ap......their own platform on the issues.  It's called a Wahlometer.  Yeah.....it's different from the Wahl-O-Mat.

What people say....upon entering the question base....is that the Wahlometer uses a particular wording on all issues.  Journalists will suggest that if you aren't competent to realize this wording.....the program can only lead you to one single party in the end.....of course....the AfD.  You could probably have a CDU-dedicated guy do this ten times, and each time.....he will be told the best choice is the AfD.

Course, the SPD and CDU could have prevented this by participating in the normal Wahl-O-Mat process and showed they were fairly open in the whole process.

What will happen to the Wahlometer after this Sunday?  I suspect that the AfD will continue to use it and push it via social media across to other state elections as well.  Whatever rational thoughts that the SPD or CDU had on controlling this question-to-platform idea.....they didn't really consider all the implications.

Changing the vote for November 2017's national election?  Let's say that enough naive people exist in Germany and that they could be led to use the Wahlometer instead of the legit Wahl-O-Mat......I'm guessing that it might shift one-percent of the votes to the AfD that they might not have gotten.  One-percent?  It's not a big deal but it's taking that one-percent away from some other party.

So, when you hear about the Wahlometer, remember that it's a creation by the AfD.