Younger members of the society, especially tertiary education students, would prefer to vote online rather than visiting a polling booth.
Although it is neither legal nor in practice, cash payment of say $50 would not motivate the youngsters to exercise their franchise.
This was among the outcomes of a Student Survey conducted by Massey University at its Palmerston North, Auckland and Wellington.
The Study, involving 288 students was a part of Massey’s Politics Programme.
It aimed to gauge the opinions of students in the 18-24 age group and their attitude towards the general election scheduled to be held on September 20, 2014.
Politics Programme colleague Associate Professor Richard Shaw said that 75% of the respondents who had said earlier that they would not vote, would exercise their franchise if there were an online option.
Media useful
“About 51% of the students said that they would be motivated by payment. The study found that nearly three-quarters of young people get their information on New Zealand politics from the media and nearly all said that they would consult the Internet to get information on the electoral process,” he said.
Dr Damien Rogers, who analysed the responses, said that these results reflected the level to which technology shapes the lives of young people.
“Our respondents had a high level of technological literacy and convenience in the voting system. There is a lot to be positive about the results of the Survey, but this is a well-educated, probably largely middle-class, cohort,” he said.
But Professor Shaw warned that online voting alone is unlikely to be the silver bullet that would fix declining participation levels among young voters.
“Online voting would help but we should be careful to make sure that the solutions match the problems. It is critical to demystify the voting process and make politics relevant among young people, some migrant communities, the poor and those who have not spent many years in formal education. Technology alone will not solve that problem. At a time when there is a feeling that democracy is being hollowed out, it is important that we do not let a generation of potential voters drift away from politics,” he said.
Larger interest
According to Dr Rogers, the results showed surprisingly high levels of voting intention amongst university students, with 79% of the respondents saying that they intended to vote in the next general election.
“While 79% said that they intended to vote, about 40% of those who were eligible to vote in the last election admitted that they did not vote. The Survey also found that over two-thirds of respondents did not know the name of their electorate and less than 8% knew the date of the general election. While neither of these things is important at the present time, it raises questions about the true level of engagement,” he said.
No major concerns
Dr Rogers said that the respondents did not identify any burning issues and that youngsters did not find any major differences between political parties, in relation to their own circumstance.
“Many also pointed to their own lack of knowledge about the issues so there is certainly scope for providing information in a way that engages young people. The Survey was conducted before the announcement of the Mana/Internet Party alliance and hence it would be interesting to see if that changes the election landscape for the young,” he said.
Political illiteracy
Dr Shaw said that self-identified barriers to voting are a reflection of low levels of political literacy.
“Civics education might help, but it should be civics pointed at the issues that matter to people, not civics taught at the level of constitutional design. It might also help if we began to question some of the things that we have long taken for granted. The role of political parties is one of these,” he said.
Dr Shaw said that people still think that parties are primarily responsible for mobilising voters but these days only 3% of voters are members of a party.
There is therefore a need to explore other ways of for mobilising people, he said.
“If our conception of citizenship is limited to asking people to roll out of bed and vote once every three years, that doesn’t seem like a particularly compelling reason for voting,” Dr Shaw said.
Picture Courtesy: Massey News
