Smart Vote - website/app that shows your politicians. Friend is part of team.
smartvote.ie
smartvote.iePosted Jan 14, 2016, 8:29 AM UTC
2828
smartvote.ieThis website says to me that all our parties and candidates are so shite we need a website to tell us who to vote for........
7
This is a great way of steering peoples votes to candidates they may not actually agree with. Its like a light form of gerrymandering (maybe thats the wrong word).
There is no evidence that this site will give you any realistic answers and its too valuable to not be for sale to vested interests (and theres no evidence it isnt - i.e. it can't be provably fair)
EDIT: Heres a great example:
'Abortion should be permitted in cases of rape, incest or when the baby is unlikely to survive outside the womb' - Well I think everyone agrees with this but is the question 'only' in these cases as I (and many) agree with the bigger question (i.e. abortion should be permitted when the woman chooses up to x date)
EDIT 2: Here's another loaded query:
'To address overcrowding, additional funding should be made available to hospitals that meet agreed A&E targets.' This is a much bigger question, what are the targets etc. Is this the only area to focus on etc.
EDIT 3: Tried this thing 3 times (for my district) and its coming up with terribly boogie answers - avoid at all costs. Its a shit show. If you need to this steer your voting your already out of the loop. This wont help you (and may help people you dont agree with, like or want making decisions for you in the future)
6
I agree that the wording is push polling but you can still get a general idea of where candidates stand. It would be much better if they had topics and then drop down options rather than statements
3
'To address overcrowding, additional funding should be made available to hospitals that meet agreed A&E targets.' This is a much bigger question, what are the targets etc. Is this the only area to focus on etc.
I found that question a bit suspect too. It sounds like manifesto-speak for "we will cut funding to underperforming hospitals" which has worked sooo well in England like.
1
It's not very useful/doesn't really work - gave a whole pile of politicians from different parties across the spectrum the exact same score, as well as having no answers for some candidates and missing some candidates.
6
I guess that's part of the problem with the way the website/app operates, it's reliant on the candidates to go through it and fill it out.
Some of the questions are complex and can't really be answered with a Yes or No style of answer.
2
It scored candidates from Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail, AAA-PBP and an independent identically. That wasn't down to the candidates not responding - that's a massive design flaw.
2
candidates can change answers
0
But it always you to at least see somewhat of a personal response of the likes of independents or smaller party candidates who dont have the resources to call to your door. It is also nice to see questions on something other than Irish Water or housing, which some candidates are basing their entire campaign on.
2
Not sure if this type of post is allowed. Have a look.
3
Why are they asking for 3 different levels of agreement/disagreement when it is seemingly disregarded in the scoring?
On the scoring page, "Somewhat agree"/"Agree"/"Strongly Agree" are all boiled down to "You agreed".
Also, as mentioned, some questions are far too specific, such as the health insurance question. My FF candidate came up as disagree, but only because he favoured a better funded public health option.
3
they get different points but candidates answer only show the symbol agree or disagree
1
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2
It shows their actual statement.
1
Its interesting to see who is for what but the Issues arent weighted. I my strongly agree with an idea but it mightnt be important to me.
It would be far more interesting to have a table created with all the candidates and their positions so I could compare their stance visually while looking at them altogether
2
I think it would be helpful if the questions were grouped into different categories - environment, healthcare, public transport, etc.
2
Nice idea but the candidate returned top of the list for me was the last guy I'd actually vote for.
The guy I'm planning on voting for came midfield, but when I read his comments on the questions then I could see why we had disagreed on the simple Yes/No answers.
2
That's the idea. It's not a facebook, which Political party and I app. I guess some people wont read that stuff, but then again they might not vote either.
2
This is a fantastic idea. It's a great tool to help younger voters move away from parish pump politics. Stop them from simply voting for who their parents do and generally figuring out where their opinions lie politically. Genius idea from whoever thought it up!
1
A candidate that is local to me has claimed that he was never asked to fill out any survey. The site author is clearly lying when they say:
"We’ve asked each candidate in your constituency to answer thirty questions."
1
The site author is clearly lying....
Maybe the candidate is lying...
3
[removed]
1
Also they may of sourced the information from elsewhere.
0
Then it would still be lying if they said they "asked each candidate".
2
they asked both party and then candidates
1
This is a great way for politicians to lie on survey but be sure the older population that can't get apps to work won't see it.
And, as pointed out, you have to be a bit of an idiot to get your opinion of politicians from an unverifiable third party.
-1
Some of the questions were loaded and over simplified. But the idea is good, and it gives you a rough guide of where candidates stand on the bigger issues.
Except most of the candidates are either in the middle, or just didn't answer the questions - so you'll be most likely to get a candidate that answered every question as your top result (even if you conflict on policy to a larger degree than the ones who didn't answer).
I don't think any of the FG candidates answered the questions themselves. I've checked a few constituencies using the compare policy tool and keep getting the same results for every single FG candidate. Pick Neither agree or disagree for every question and you'll get a score of 22 for every FG candidate.