Kimberley's voter turnout for the municiple election hovered around 50%. In Cranbrook despite much chatter in the community for the last three years, the turnout was a meagre 33%. Why? Engaging youth would certainly help but how should that be done? If parents read, their children usually read. If parents play hockey their children often play hockey. The apples don't usually fall far from the tree.
Taking a child to the voting station demonstrates and models that civic duty. It is rather ironic that there were many children present at the Remembrance Day Service where we remember the fight for democracy and those who lost their lives in that fight but few children were visible with their parents at the polling station. If more children were allowed to witness the act of voting, there may well be a better understanding of what democracy translates into. Those children may not understand all the issues but their curiosity would be stimulated and discussion would engage them in the process.
B.C. Electoral Officer Calls for Reforms to Engage Youth
Election Act
DIRK MEISSNER
VICTORIA— The Canadian Press
Published Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 9:52PM EST
Elections BC wants to test online voting and register people younger in an effort to make the provincial electoral system more efficient, modern and attractive to voters.
Chief Electoral Officer Keith Archer makes four recommendations to change the B.C. Election Act in a report tabled on Monday in the B.C. legislature.
Attorney General Shirley Bond said she is looking forward to working with Elections BC on the recommendations, especially online voting and getting young people more engaged in politics.
But she said she’s not sure about lowering the voting age below 18 years as suggested during last winter's Liberal leadership race.
“Young people feel disengaged,” said Ms. Bond. “They don’t feel their views matter.”
Elections BC recommends “legislators may wish to consider allowing the provisional registration of individuals when they are 16 years of age.”
The report noted that the lowest voter turnout among B.C. voters is among those between 18 and 24 years old.
“The most effective means of registering youth may be to approach them before they graduate from high school,” said the report, adding that might help engage them enough that they will be more inclined to vote.
The report stated that Australia allows voters to register at 17 and some U.S. states start registering their voters at 16.
Bond said she wants to look at ways to attract more young voters to take an interest in elections, and if that means going into schools to discuss civic issues and conduct registration drives that may be required.
In the 2009 B.C. election, voter turn-out was 50 per cent of eligible voters. It was 58 per cent of total eligible voters in the 2005 B.C. election.
“We need to make sure we are looking at how we get our participation numbers up, especially among young people,” said Bond.
She said she completely supports Elections BC’s call for pilot projects to test online voting.
“I love the idea,” Bond said. “I’m currently working on how we will put in place an expert panel that will look at voting online in B.C. We’re working on putting the process together.”
The report also recommended allowing Elections BC to explore methods to introduce more flexibility to current voter enumeration practices and removing the actual name “Voting Officer” from Election Act and replace it with a term that allows officers to perform various duties connected to the electoral process.
Part of the solution comes from the recognition that low voter turn out comes from two things: most people taking for granted that the City is basically running fine, and most people lacking that internal compass that either makes you feel good that you are meeting an important civic responsibility or bad when you are not. The former could be solved either with a carrot or a stick. You are never going to convince anyone --through indirect guilt or or persuasion-- to vote when he or she feels no personal responsibility to do so. You will have to present them with a substantial personal benefit or loss whether or not they vote. In the second case, I agree that it starts with youth --and earlier the better. That means bringing civics into our elementary schools and building on that foundation with more specifics through the grades and applyibng those lessons through comunity volunteering.
ReplyDelete