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A voting advice application or voting aid application (VAA) is a Web application that helps voters find a party that stands closest to their preferences. VAAs are a new phenomenon in modern election campaigning. In some of the countries with popular VAAs an intense debate has broken out. Some maintain that VAAs are a fraud that can never give correct and neutral voting advice. Others contend that these applications must be commended as they focus people’s attention on the party programmes and on policy issues, compelling parties to discuss substance instead of personalities, images and campaign events. A study of VAAs by the University of Antwerp ends with a plea for a careful selection of VAA statements and for a proper process of benchmarking based on survey data. Without appropriate calibrating VAAs produce invalid results. VAA questionnaires should be completed by the candidate for maximum accuracy, but also VAAs completed by the journalist are published, with supposed positions taken from party programmes and debates. ==Usage== In 2007, of 22 European countries, 15 had at least one VAA. Some of the most successful ones were the Dutch Stemwijzer with 4.7 million consultations in 2006 (40% of the electorate) and the German Wahl-O-Mat with 6.7 million consultations in 2009 (12% of the electorate).〔Garzia, D.: "The Effects of VAAs on Users’ Voting Behaviour: An Overview", in Cedroni, L. & Garzia, D. (eds.):(''Voting Advice Applications in Europe: The State of the Art'' ), Napoli: ScriptaWeb, 2010.〕 Research showed that usage was higher in countries with proportional electoral systems and a larger number of parliamentary political parties, including Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands and Switzerland.〔Cedroni, Lorella: "Voting Advice Applications in Europe: A Comparison" in Cedroni, L. & Garzia, D. (2010)〕 In Finland, the Votingaid phenomenon has even produced a little rivalry between the most popular news channels and voters eagerly compare the results between different VAA's. Out of Finland's electorate of 4,3 million, it is reported that over 20% of them found voting advice on the most popular VAA, launched by MTV3〔MTV3〕 and produced by a software company named ZEF.〔http://www.zef.fi/en/votingaid/〕 ZEF has even made it as their mission to help countries and people around the world to achieve democracy with their Votingaid product. They have a co-operation with Al Jazeera〔Al jazeera〕 and they have already made a VAA to the Egypt's Presidential Election in 2012 and to the USA's Presidential Election in 2012.〔http://www.votingaid.com/player/aljazeera/usavotingaid〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Voting advice application」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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