Launched less than a week ago, it already has more than 100,000 downloads.
More than half of 18-30 year olds plan not to vote in the April 2022 presidential election, according to an Ifop poll. To overcome this problem, two students in their twenties, Grégoire Cazcarra and François Mari, designed the non-partisan Elyze application, launched on January 2. As on the Tinder dating platform, the user is invited to randomly swipe the candidates’ campaign proposals: “Put an end to social and tax exemptions from which companies benefit” Where “Hire 100,000 new nurses”. If the user agrees, he swipes his screen to the right, otherwise he goes to the left to indicate that he is against. The algorithm is gradually refined and offers a ranking of the profiles for which the young person could vote. A reliability score is also displayed. For 90 past proposals, it is equivalent to 20%, against 78% for 350 swipes.
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In total, nearly 500 proposals are distributed among about fifteen candidates for the election, or about thirty for each. They are then classified among eleven themes, from the environment to the economy, including education or international. These proposals are identified by the Elyze collective, made up of around twenty people, via the candidates’ social networks, their TV sets or their campaign sites. “They will be updated and enriched over time”, indicates Grégoire Cazcarra, before adding that “Users and campaign teams can tell us about possible errors”.
A fun interface
Regarding the political figures, they are the headliners of the campaign. Emmanuel Macron is also part of the panel, although he has not yet announced his official candidacy. Each personality’s file shows their age, education and some personal anecdotes, such as Nicolas Dupont-Aignan’s favorite series (Columbo) or the former profession of Anne Hidalgo (labor inspector). Grégoire Cazcarra assures him, “We remain vigilant that no candidate is favored”.
Young people today are discouraged from reading long articles about the candidate programs. With this application, it is easy to access and intuitive, it only takes a few seconds to understand each proposal
Grégoire Cazcarra, co-founder of the application
These codes work very well with the younger generation, who do not hesitate to share their rankings on social networks. Word of mouth and ease of use prompted Jules, an 18-year-old economics student, to download Elyze: “Young people today are discouraged from reading long articles about candidate programs. With this application, it’s easy to access and intuitive, it only takes a few seconds to understand each proposition. ”
So far, it has generated more than 100,000 downloads on Google Play and the Apple Store, ranking second among free iOS applications, behind TousAntiCovid. Elyze is free and does not contain any advertising. Grégoire Cazcarra hopes to decline his tool in other elections, and undertakes that “User data remains anonymous and optional, without ever being communicated to a campaign team, a political party or a partisan formation”.