With the federal election imminent the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has taken to social media to woo young adults onto the roll and to the polls, but youth non-participation rates will likely remain high.
Since the election was announced last week the AEC has been in overdrive ensuring all eligible Australians – particularly young adults – are enrolled to vote.
Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn says young Australians represent one third of missing voters.
“Around half a million 18-24-year-old voters are missing from the electoral roll, out of 1.4 million Australians that are not yet enrolled to vote,” Mr Killesteyn said last week.
To counter this the AEC has launched a social media campaign that includes YouTube advertising, tweets and the “Youth Votes Matter” Facebook app aimed at making it easy for young adults to enrol and vote.
Enrol? Didn’t know I needed to.
AEC youth spokesperson Malama Gray says the main reason for low youth enrolment is unawareness.
“A lot of teens just don’t know [that they need to enrol], which is why we work to raise awareness through initiatives like this social media campaign,” she says.
The message is being received; 300,000 new enrolees have signed up since the election was announced.
But, according to Ms Gray, enrolment rates remain low among certain groups, including Indigenous youth.
“A lot of Indigenous youth don’t enrolled because they have a family history of not voting, or they live in remote areas,” Ms Gray said. “That can increase unawareness and apathy about voting.”
The argument that high non-enrolment is caused by a lack of awareness is the main argument for introducing automatic enrolment, but some experts say this isn’t the only contributing factor.
“I don’t see the point [in voting].”
Politics Professor Dr Aaron Martain says poor youth participation figures can reflect political dissatisfaction.
“Young people are less likely to vote if they feel dissatisfied with the main parties,” Dr Martin says.
The June Lowy Institute poll shows that young people are bucking the trend on several key election issues.
Unlike every other age group, most 18-29-year-olds don’t support offshore processing. They’re more optimistic about the economy and less concerned about immigration.
“My hunch is that young people feel their views aren’t being represented on issues, like refugee policy, which can definitely increase non-participation,” Dr Martin says.
24-year-old Christine isn’t on the electoral roll. She hasn’t voted in the last two federal elections and won’t vote in September.
“I don’t see the point,” she says. “I don’t agree with either party on most issues. Plus I live in a safe-seat, so why bother?”
This stance is not unusual; less than half of young Australians believe that democracy is preferable to any other kind of government.
The AEC is battling to overcome this mentality, but whether young people make their vote count won’t be known until September.
Do you think “your vote is a valuable thing”? Or would you rather skip the ballot box and go straight to the sausage sizzle on election day? Comment below.
AEC Australia 2007 TV ad “Your vote is a valuable thing”
TV commercial aired in 2007 from the Australian Electoral Commission. The AEC are currently re-using a modified version of this ad for the 2013 election.
