Now that the results are in from the federal election of October 14, 2008 and the country is settling in for an extended period of minority government, attention is turning to the question of voter participation.  The voter turnout nationally was not only down from the last election in 2006, but it was downright dismal in many parts of the country. 

This should not have come as a complete shock, given that information published in advance of the 2008 election suggested that young voters in particular were not planning to vote.  One poll, conducted by the Innovation Research Group for the Dominion Institute, determined that young Canadians were being honest - they simply did not intend to turnout to the polls.  The Report published by the Dominion Institute stated that, in 2006, 57% of young voters planned to vote, but only 44% of them actually made it to the local polling station.  Three-quarters of the 18 to 25 year olds said that, while they were concerned about low turnout among voters, 30% of them said they did not feel that they knew enough to cast their own vote, 11% said they were too busy and another 11% said they just did not care.

On Thursday, October 16, 2008, the Globe and Mail carried a detailed snapshot of voter turnout in the 2008 federal election.  Overall, voter turnout fell from the level of 65% in 2006 to 59% in 2008.  In Ontario, for example, voter turnout fell from 67% in 2006 to 59% in 2008.  While there were some shockingly low turnouts in Alberta, Labrador and Newfoundland, four ridings in the Ottawa/Nepean/Carleton area had extraordinarily high turnout levels.  For example, Ottawa-Orleans had a 71.9% turnout, Ottawa Centre had a 71.4% turnout and Nepean-Carleton (a neighbourhood where I grew up) had a 70.1% turnout. Go Ottawa! 

This information has triggered an interest in why young voters do not vote, but it has also tweaked my interest in searching for possible incentives that could motivate all voters to cast their ballots.

So, how can we turn this around? How can we motivate voters to go to the polls?  I am not certain that we can rely on the arrival of charismatic political leaders to solve the problem of voter interest. In my view, charisma in politics is overrated and has lead to some spectacularly poor selections of leaders. Give me a good common sense manager, who cares about people more than ideas, over a lot of inspirational rhetoric any day. I do not believe that we can sit back and wait for personality to push people to the polls.

Australia has passed a law making it a mandatory requirement to vote.  It is an interesting attempt to solve the problem but, in the final analysis, “criminalizes” non-participation in their democracy.  I have been thinking about the other side of that coin and wonder if it is not time to try an experiment in an upcoming municipal, provincial or federal election. 

Consider the following: Those of us who did vote on October 14, 2008 will recall that we were handed a ballot that was folded. After we marked the ballot, we returned it to an election worker. That individual tore off a perforated portion of the ballot and returned the ballot to us, so we could place it in the ballot box. As I stood in line, I wondered, what if we added an additional perforated portion to that ballot that was returned to the voter as proof of having voted.  This “voter receipt,” if you like, could be used creatively for one of the following:

(1) to obtain a credit against tuition at a Canadian university or college
(2) to obtain a credit against the purchase of books from a Canadian publisher;
(3) to obtain a credit on a monthly transit pass;
(4) to obtain a matching credit for donation to a charity;
(5) to obtain an increase in the limit of funds that could be contributed to an RESP or RRSP. 

I am sure that others could add other causes and ideas that we would want to see Canadian voters support. Imagine too that we would allow families to combine their credits so that a whole family could bundle credits for a student to obtain, for example, even larger deductions on tuition or books.  With such incentives, we would say to voters that, as a society we want to acknowledge and show appreciation for the fact that you vote.  We do not care who you vote for, but we do appreciate that you go to the polls. 

I know that some observers will ask an appropriate question – what would all this cost?  I took a look at the number of ballots cast in Ontario in the 2007 provincial election – 4,423,898 people voted. What would it be worth overall to our society to send a million more Ontarians to the polls? What would it be worth to send hundreds of thousands of young people to the polls and, in the process, ensure that the credit they receive for casting their ballots is turned right around and invested back in Ontario’s publishing industries, public transit, charities and the education of our population. That is the kind of investment I would like to see taxpayers make in our society.

There is enough time to cost such a proposal and to develop a way of implementing it well in advance of the next municipal and provincial elections in Ontario. Let’s offer voters some incentives and see what happens. 

Michael G. Cochrane, B.A., LL.B.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 8:44 pm.
It is categorized under Politics.
You can follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed.