Full paper accepted at the ACM FAccT conference!

Created on April 11, 2025

2025

Our paper on bridging voting and deliberation with algorithms (Yang & Bachmann, 2025) has been accepted at ACM FAccT 2025 in Athens, Greece!

We present field insights from two real-world platforms — vTaiwan and Kultur Komitee — exploring how algorithmic methods can connect voting and deliberation processes.

Thanks to my co-author Joshua C. Yang for the great collaboration!

ACM FAccT

Bridging Voting and Deliberation with Algorithms: Field Insights from vTaiwan and Kultur Komitee

Joshua C. Yang and Fynn Bachmann

In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency

Presented at FAccT 2025 in Athens, Greece

Abs DOI

Democratic processes increasingly integrate large-scale voting with face-to-face deliberation to reconcile individual preferences with collective decision-making. This work introduces algorithmic methods to bridge online voting with face-to-face deliberation, tested in two real-world scenarios: Kultur Komitee 2024 (KK24) and vTaiwan. We present three key contributions: (1) Preference-based Clustering for Deliberation (PCD), enabling both focused and broad discussions by computing balanced homogeneous and heterogeneous groups; (2) Humanin-the-loop MES, enhancing the Method of Equal Shares algorithm with real-time feedback, giving participants control over algorithmic decision-making; and (3) the ReadTheRoom method, using opinion mapping to identify agreement and divergence while tracking opinion shifts during deliberation. These actionable frameworks extend in-person deliberation with scalable digital methods that address the complexities of modern participatory decision-making.