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In the context of recurrent critical discourses on political parties, experiments were set up on platforms during the 2017 presidential and legislative elections, with a view to going beyond partisan politics and proposing other alternatives to the selection of candidates. Digital platforms were central to the two case studies—of Ma Voix and LaPrimaire.org—presented here, because it is through technology that institutions are redesigned. The study is based on the analysis of the design and content of the platforms, as well as on interviews with the designers, activists and users, and their life stories. It reveals differing visions of democracy and its renewal: on the one hand, a capacitated view based on the idea of competent individuals and, on the other, a conception based on a collective of anonymous laypersons and learning. The objective of opening up democracy—in the sense of seeking out Internet user-candidates with few social resources—has not been achieved; those who dare to register via the platform are mostly men, and are left-wing, with higher education, living in large cities.