Voting Assistant Chatbot for Increasing Voter Turnout at Local Elections: An Exploratory Study

Local Dutch elections suffer from a voter turnout decrease with 23% between 1986 and 2022. This raises general quality concerns about the local democracy. A Conversational Agent Voting Advice Application (CAVAA) chatbot was developed to aid in solving this problem. The objective of the study was to analyze the effect of the CAVAA chatbot on the perceived political knowledge and intention to vote in municipal elections. An experimental within-subject study (N = 95) in the run-up to the Dutch municipal elections of March 16, 2022 among a typical Dutch municipality of 27,000 inhabitants was conducted. The CAVAA chatbot asked the participant’s opinion on 20 local issues, provided further background information if desired in a dialogue, and concluded the interaction with a voting advice. Participants reported a greater understanding of local political issues after CAVAA use. However, no effect was found on the intention to vote. The study therefore suggests that a voting assistant chatbot may contribute to a higher voter turnout, but the results should be interpreted with caution and further research is desirable.