New Digital Initiative Seeks to Boost Voter Turnout Ahead of Knesset Elections
Digital strategist Dr. Yifat Mor has launched "Demo-kratzia," a new tool allowing Israelis to send personalized, humorous WhatsApp messages encouraging hesitant acquaintances to vote.
With the upcoming Knesset elections drawing near, digital strategist Dr. Yifat Mor has launched "Demo-kratzia"—a playful initiative designed to boost voter turnout by encouraging citizens to gently pester friends and family who are hesitant to vote. Created in collaboration with writer Elia Greenfield using AI coding tools, the platform allows users to generate personalized, humorous WhatsApp messages urging acquaintances to cast their ballots, without telling them who to vote for.
Mor, a 40-year-old lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who is currently 38 weeks pregnant, wanted to find a way to make a meaningful impact ahead of the vote despite her physical limitations. Drawing on research showing that personal messages from acquaintances are among the most effective ways to drive voter participation—especially among "weak ties"—she developed the tool in just a few hours. Another creative professional, Yuval Gabai, later joined the project to add an even more gamified interface option.
The initiative explicitly avoids alignment with any specific political party, focusing instead on strengthening democratic participation and civic duty. Mor notes that voter turnout in previous elections hovered around 70 percent, and she hopes that encouraging disillusioned or undecided voters to head to the polls could help shift the political landscape, particularly on the liberal side of the map. Thousands of visits and hundreds of messages have already been logged since the platform went live.
