Palumba

What would be weirder than using an app with a cute pigeon as a mascot to find out who to vote for? Yep. We don’t know either. Use Palumba to figure out which candidates best support your ideas at the 2024 European Elections, the 2025 German Elections and the 2025 New York City Mayoral Election. Tbh, these elections are so confusing, we’ll be using the app too

How it works:
- Swipe your opinion on important political topics
- Stay neutral on things you’re not sure about :)
- Match with your most compatible European Parliament Group, German Political Party or NYC mayoral candidate.
- Learn about your voter profile, compare Groups on specific topics, and share the themes you care most about.
- The first 10,000 users of Palumba could get a free European Youth Card! This means thousands of discounts for leisure, culture, travels, concerts, restaurants… and much more!

Palumba is a non-profit and non-partisan association of young Europeans who care about our generation taking centre stage in the public debate and vote more than ever. All statements were curated from suggestions of youth organisations, proofread by a pan-european Scientific Council independent from candidates and parties, and evaluated by an open-source algorithm. Strict data protection applies too. We explain (and you can check) everything in our FAQ here: palumba.eu/faq

New York 2025 Mayoral Elections details:

Ahead of the November 4th mayoral election, Who’s on the Ballot and Palumba NYC are teaming up to make voting easier, more engaging, and more informative for New Yorkers. Voter turnout in New York City municipal elections has fallen sharply in recent years. According to the NYC Campaign Finance Board, only 23.3% of eligible voters cast ballots in the 2021 general election. The nonpartisan partnership aims to boost participation in a city where turnout has clearly reached record lows.

Who’s on the Ballot has been directed by Columbia University’s Professor Ester Fuchs for over a decade. It allows voters to access personalized, nonpartisan information including poll locations, sample ballots, candidate and proposition information, and voter registration status. The Palumba app was developed by Columbia SIPA students and faculty volunteers to help voters quickly learn where the mayoral candidates stand on the issues which have dominated the campaign.

Modeled after a familiar dating-app interface, users decide their own policy preference among those offered by the candidates. An open-source algorithm then matches them with candidates who share their priorities. This makes it easier for voters to navigate the complex issues that are informing this mayoral election. During the 2024 European Elections, Palumba reached nearly 200,000 voters and became the #1 app in the App Store across several countries. Building on that success, Palumba aims to reach 20 million users globally by 2029 through its built-in social sharing tools.

This partnership between Who’s on the Ballot and Palumba gives New York City voters easy access to a comprehensive voter engagement experience. Prof Fuchs and Pol Villaverde, President of Palumba.org agree that “elections are the cornerstone of democratic practice” and we need to make it easier to be informed voters and get to the polls and vote. As New Yorkers prepare for this mayoral election, Palumba NYC and Who’s on the Ballot hope to remind residents that voting gives them power to shape New York City’s future.

This digital app makes it easy for New Yorkers to both be informed and to vote. So New Yorkers who usually complain that they have no time for anything now have no excuse to skip this election.