In addition to finding pro-voting messages on their cups, customers at 2% Jazz, Habit and Shatterbox coffee shops will also be directed to votepledge2014.ca, a website launched in March by Victoria Coun. Lisa Helps to encourage people to get out and vote.
Go for it, we say. Anything that might help increase the region鈥檚 low voter turnout is welcome.
In the 2011 municipal election, voter turnout in the region averaged about 30 per cent, with Metchosin highest with 49 per cent and Langford at the bottom of the list with 14 per cent.
A dismal rate of participation in the democratic process, to say the least.
Since the 1960s, voter participation has declined among the world鈥檚 established democracies. Low voter turnout usually sparks a lot of hand-wringing about the state of democracy.
However, several studies by political scientists show data that indicate there鈥檚 no need for alarm, that the extent of voter turnout has little effect on election outcomes.
Dutch political scientist Martin Rosema, in a paper published on an electoral studies website, takes the argument further and suggests low turnout might be a good thing.
Which would be preferable, he asks, a high turnout election in which voters make their choice by flipping a coin or based on the looks of the candidates, or a low-turnout election in which voters weigh the worth of the performance and platforms of candidates?
鈥淎rguably, the latter situation would be preferable,鈥� he writes.
There are a couple of problems with the studies that dismiss concerns about low voter turnout. Generally, they are based on polls taken after an election. And we have learned from the recent Alberta, sa国际传媒 and Ontario elections just how wrong polls can be. They show that how people say they will vote is not a guarantee of how they will actually cast their ballots. And asking non-voters how they would have voted has even less meaning. The only way you can truly know how someone would have voted is if they actually vote.
Also, these surveys usually focus on national elections, where the votes of a small minority are not likely to substantially affect the overall outcome. Researchers Zoltan Hajnal of the University of California San Diego and Jessica Trounstine of Princeton University in New Jersey say that when the studies focus on local elections, the results are different. They suggest that in municipal elections, the lower the voter turnout, the higher the possibility that the results can be skewed by one segment of the population or special interests.
Regardless of studies, voter participation does matter. While the public has many opportunities for input in civic government, it鈥檚 only at the polling place that politicians鈥� feet are truly held to the fire.
While it鈥檚 best that voters be informed before they vote, even the mere act of casting a ballot makes a person more aware of the candidates and issues involved in local government.
The voting rate is lowest among younger people. Only a third of young people vote when they first become eligible, half the rate of a generation ago. Apathy and a sense of helplessness are significant factors, but those can only be cured by getting involved. It was encouraging, then, to see high school students in the region stage walkouts in June to protest the impasse between teachers and government. Whatever their motives, those students got involved.
Messages on coffee cups alone are not likely to reverse the downward trend in voter turnout, but perhaps they can help make the voting habit contagious.
