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This paper compares two modes of administering an election survey: A traditional, door-to-door survey and an identical online version promoted via a Voting Advice Application. Whereas online political surveys are known to suffer from self-selection bias of politically interested respondents, traditional surveys are plagued with socially desirable responding and are susceptible to the effects of satisficing and other fatigue-related effects. Using a propensity score matching methodology, we examine the extent to which such differences exist between the two modes of administration. While we report mixed findings regarding the structure of respondents' answer patterns, significant differences emerged in relation to social desirability bias with the offline group being more "affected" than the online group.

This paper compares two modes of administering an election survey: a traditional, door-to-door survey and an identical online version promoted via a Voting Advice Application. Whereas online political surveys are known to suffer from self-selection bias of politically interested respondents, traditional surveys are plagued with socially desirable responding and are susceptible to the effects of satisficing and other fatigue-related effects. Using a propensity score matching methodology, we examine the extent to which such differences exist between the two modes of administration. While we report mixed findings regarding the structure of respondents' answer patterns, significant differences emerged in relation to social desirability bias with the offline group being more 'affected' than the online group.

The German federal election of 2017 saw significant losses for the two German mainstream parties (Volksparteien) and governing coalition partners, the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD). The major beneficiary was the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a right-populist party, which almost tripled its amount of votes received from the 2013 federal election. Making use of data from a Voting Advice Application, this article seeks to explore the AfD's extraordinary electoral success with particular attention to the party's capacity to attract voters from the two mainstream and traditionally powerful parties. Drawing on the literature on radical right-wing parties in Europe and tracking the route of AfD from a single-issue Eurosceptic party to a radical party with broader programmatic appeal, this work tests hypotheses regarding demographic, political and attitudinal determinants of voting for AfD, in general, and switching one's vote to AfD from CDU/CSU or SPD more specifically. In line with previous literature, individual-level analyses show that voting for the AfD seems to be more tangentially related to demographic variables, such as sex, age and education and more strongly connected to political concerns, e.g. "conservative" self-placement and attitudes toward specific policies, immigration and Euroscepticism in particular.

The German federal election of 2017 saw significant losses for the two German mainstream parties (Volksparteien) and governing coalition partners, the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD). The major beneficiary was the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a right-populist party, which almost tripled its amount of votes received from the 2013 federal election. Making use of data from a Voting Advice Application, this article seeks to explore the AfD's extraordinary electoral success with particular attention to the party's capacity to attract voters from the two mainstream and traditionally powerful parties. Drawing on the literature on radical right-wing parties in Europe and tracking the route of AfD from a single-issue Eurosceptic party to a radical party with broader programmatic appeal, this work tests hypotheses regarding demographic, political and attitudinal determinants of voting for AfD, in general, and switching one's vote to AfD from CDU/CSU or SPD more specifically. In line with previous literature, individual-level analyses show that voting for the AfD seems to be more tangentially related to demographic variables, such as sex, age and education and more strongly connected to political concerns, e.g. "conservative" self-placement and attitudes toward specific policies, immigration and Euroscepticism in particular.

So far, research on the effects of Voting Advice Applications has been focused on aspects of voting behavior, whether, for example, these online tools impact citizens' likelihood to vote or their voting choices. Relatively under-researched remain questions concerning the relationship between using VAAs and other forms of involvement in politics, such as engagement with electoral campaigns and information seeking. This paper seeks to examine differences in these behaviors associated with VAA-use utilizing panel data generated during and after the period of the German Bundestag Federal Elections in September, 2017, a period in which demand for VAAs was high, with the most popular tool in Germany, Wahl-O-Mat, being used more than 15.6 million times. The data from roughly 800 participants, sampled to be representative of the German internet users, was collected in 4 waves, one month before the election at the earliest and several weeks following at the latest, a time frame that allows the examination of short-term, as well as lingering effects. Finally, beyond establishing the presence or absence of the aforementioned differences, we further attempt to localize them across different characteristics of respondents, from demographics to their political interest and knowledge.

Abstract
Thus far, research on the effects of Voting Advice Applications has focused on some aspects of voting behavior, whether, for example, these online tools impact citizens' likelihood to vote or their voting choices. Relatively under-researched remain questions concerning the relationship between using VAAs and other forms of engagement with politics, such as involvement in electoral campaigns and information seeking about politics and parties. This paper seeks to examine effects in these behaviors associated with VAA-use employing panel data generated during and after the period of the German Bundestag Federal Election in September, 2017. The data from roughly 1120 participants, sampled to be representative of the German internet users, were collected in four waves, 1 month before the election at the earliest and several weeks following at the latest. We find that VAA-use is positively associated with consuming information about politics through other media (e.g. TV) and other election-related information-seeking activities, such as reading party programmes. On the other hand, we find no statistically significant relationship between VAA-use and interpersonal talk about politics or more active engagement with electoral campaigns such as attending party rallies.

So far, research on the effects of Voting Advice Applications has been primarily focused on aspects of voting behaviour, whether, for example, these online tools impact citizens' likelihood to vote or voting choices. Relatively under-researched remain questions concerning the relationship between using VAAs and other forms of political participation, such as involvement in electoral campaigns. This paper uses panel data generated in 4 waves during and after the period of the German Federal Elections in September, 2017 to examine the tendency of using a VAA to be associated with such behaviours. Results indeed suggest a positive association between VAA-use and increased consumption of politics-related media, so that using the Wahl-O-Mat VAA was contemporaneous with an increased frequency of information-seeking in other media (e.g. TV, newspapers), suggesting that the two types of behaviours might be mutually reinforcing. We additionally find a positive, though not statistically significant tendency to use the Wahl-O-Mat and participate in electoral campaigns (through e.g. attending party rallies). However, we find no evidence of an association between VAA use and increased interpersonal talk about politics or seeking of information closely related to the electoral contest, such as reading party manifestos.