Young people, really wish you could vote!

Elections are one of the most important aspect of democracy. They allow each citizen to have a voice in how their country will be governed. But lately there has been a disconnect between citizens and their democracy, many people have been choosing not to vote. Since the 1993 election, voter turnout has been steadily declining, mostly due to the lackluster participation of young voters¹. In order to maintain a healthy democracy voter turnout needs to increase, but how to do so is a difficult conundrum. In this paper I will look at why youth are not voting, why youth voter turnout should increase, how turnout can be increased and the likelihood of change and implications of possible change.

In the May, 2011 election voter turnout was 61.1%². The age group with the lowest turnout in the 2011 election was 18-24 year olds, with only 38.8% of them showing up to vote³. There have been many reasons suggested for why youth are not voting. The reasons that have the largest effect are political interest and knowledge, education level, income level, whether they were born in Canada, and whether they are religious⁴. Attending any post-secondary school was positively correlated with voting, and those who had obtained a university degree had a higher turnout rate at 86%⁵. The higher the individual’s income the more likely they were to vote, likely because they have more to lose⁶. Individuals who were born in Canada have higher voter turnout rates than foreign born counterparts, except among indigenous youth who have the lowest turnout rates among all groups⁷. Younger Canadians are slightly less likely to belong to a religious group than older Canadians and belonging to a religion is positively correlated with a higher voting rate⁸. Though of all of these reasons play a part the one with the largest effect is political interest and knowledge⁹. Political interest also plays a part in all age groups, as the most common reason for not voting in the 2011 election was lack of interest¹⁰.

The problem of youth not voting impacts the youth themselves most directly. If the majority of youth were to vote, political parties would be more likely to address issues that primarily affect youth. In the 2011 election it has been estimated that if youth voter turnout had been at 60% (as opposed to 38.8%) then the Conservatives would not have gotten a majority¹¹. So if youth vote they have the power to change who is represented in the government. Youth should also vote because in order to have a healthy democracy voting needs to take place and by not voting they are choosing to live in a self-imposed dictatorship. With low voter turnout the legitimacy of the government can easily be questioned, since not even half of youth are voting than the government does not have any legitimacy for them¹². Probably the easiest reason for why youth should vote more is because it is relatively easy, it only takes a couple of hours out of one’s day and then one can feel good that they upheld their democratic duty¹³.

A lot of research and questioning is being done in regards to youth voting behaviour. Many different ways of increasing turnout have been suggested and a few tried to minimal effect. Mandatory civic education classes have been tried in high schools, but they had no noticeable effect¹⁴. Likely because most individuals in high schools cannot vote and by the time they can vote they have forgotten what they have learned. The best ways to impact young voters is to create interest and then educating themselves or seeking to be educated about the issues will follow. Young voters who often had political discussions at their home were significantly more likely to vote, having a 90% rate of participation¹⁵. Maybe a fruitful way of bringing up the voter turnout rate would be to target parents and tell them the importance of political discussion with their children and socializing them to see voting as a democratic duty. Since the largest influence on youth voter turnout is political interest and knowledge any process that is meant to increase turnout should primarily address those two issues and the best way to do that is by fostering interest early on at home.

For the current young voters a good way to combat lack of interest would be through changes to the voting system. The system in Canada now is First Past the Post (FPTP) which contributes to a lot of wasted votes and skewed results. For example in the 2011 election the Conservative Party received 39.6% of the vote but 54% of the seats¹⁶. There win was due to lack of voter turnout and the constituency system that favours some areas more than others and waste an incredible amount of votes¹⁷. FPTP is very good at reinforcing the idea that an individual’s vote does not matter. If an individual is in an area were one party reigns supreme (almost anywhere in Alberta) than that individual only has the illusion of choice when it comes to deciding who they vote for, if they oppose the ruling party. They can only choose the party most likely to beat the ruling party because any other choice will be a wasted ballot. Changing the electoral system could have positive impacts on voter turnout, having a voting system that proportionally represents the voters either by age demographic or simply that 30% of the votes get a party 30% of the seats, allows voters to feel that they have more influence by casting their ballot. Say if the age group of 18-29 year olds is 30% of the population than they should get 30% percent of the seats, regardless of how many people in that age group show up to vote. Though likely if youth had a guaranteed proportion of the seats they would feel more of a connection to politics; they would be guaranteed people who reflect the majority of their interests. Elections should represent the populace of society and not the popularity of elections. Having a proportional representation system seems to work well in Denmark; they maintain a voter turnout rate consistently in the 80% range¹⁸. Alternatively there could be an award or punishment system for voting/not voting, such as a tax break for voting or a fine for not voting. This idea of punishment for not voting has been implemented in Australia and they see a voter turnout consistently in the 90% rate¹⁹.

When considering the provisions that go in to making changes in youth voter turnout, some change is possible, but likely not probable. For instance, currently the Chief Electoral Officer of Elections Canada is unable to run any ads encouraging people to vote, because of the Fair Elections Act²⁰. Because of this all ads encouraging people to vote will have to come from either the Federal or Provincial governments or a corporation, or individual. It is unlikely that the Conservative Government will take any action regarding either encouraging youth to vote or electoral reform²¹. The Conservatives would not benefit from the youth voting, as youth are more likely to elect left-leaning parties. Also the Conservative Government does not want to change the FPTP electoral system, due to the fact that it was the current system that won them their majority and there would be little incentive to change it²². So the only chance that it would be changed is if a party who wants to change it gets elected and actually does something about it. As for any of the other parties, it is probably unlikely that they will do any major attempts to reach out to attempt to obtain the youth vote. Parties that are trying to get elected do not want to waste time on a group that appears to not care.

So all in all, the majority of youth are not voting. There are a variety of reasons why they are not and a number of possibilities to attempt to fix the issue. In the current state of Canadian politics change is pretty unlikely, but if change were to happen the effect on politics would be quite drastic

Bibliography

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1 (“Current Publications: Social Affairs and Population: Youth Voter Turnout in Canada: 1. Trends and Issues” 2015)

2 (“Elections Canada Online, Estimation of Voter Turnout by Age Group and Gender at the 2011 Federal General Election” 2015)

3 (“Elections Canada Online, Estimation of Voter Turnout by Age Group and Gender at the 2011 Federal General Election” 2015)

4 (Blais, Andre and Loewen, Peter, “Youth Electoral Engagement in Canada,” Elections Canada, 2015)

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6 (“Elections Canada Online, National Youth Survey Report” 2015a)

7 (“Elections Canada Online , National Youth Survey Report” 2011a)

8 (Blais, Andre and Loewen, Peter, “Youth Electoral Engagement in Canada,” Elections Canada, 2011)

9 (Blais, Andre and Loewen, Peter, “Youth Electoral Engagement in Canada,” Elections Canada, 2011)

10 (“Reasons for Not Voting in the May 2, 2011 Federal Election, May 2011” 2015)

11 (“Higher Youth Turnout Could Change Tone, Outcome of Elections - Canada - CBC News” 2011)

12 (“Elections Canada Online, Why Should I Vote?” 2015)

13 (“Elections Canada Online, Why Should I Vote?” 2015)

14 (“Increasing Youth Voter Turnout: Easier Said Than Done, Ilona Dougherty” 2015)

15 (“Elections Canada Online , National Youth Survey Report” 2015b)

16 (“2011 Canadian Election Results” 2015)

17 (“What Is First Past The Post” 2015)

18 (“Canadian Parliamentary Review - Article” 2015)

19 (“Voter Turnout Data for Australia (Parliamentary), Voter Turnout ,International IDEA” 2015)

20 (“Everything You Need to Know about the Fair Elections Act - The Globe and Mail” 2015)

21 (“Higher Youth Turnout Could Change Tone, Outcome of Elections - Canada - CBC News” 2015)

22 (“Electoral Reform: Which Party Would Benefit Most? - Politics - CBC News” 2015) 

Written by Katherine Thompson