People are asking this morning: “How difficult is to drop a letter in the post?” They’re asking, because so few people bothered to vote in the latest local government elections, the results for which (in case you haven’t noticed) were announced over the weekend.
Implied in that question is the notion that the only thing holding people back from voting was the alleged difficulty of filling out a paper form and finding an envelope, a stamp and a postbox. As if fixing low voter turnout would be “fixed” if folk could fix their choice on their iPad.
But the people asking that question are mostly involved in politics themselves. Which is why they’re ignoring what, to me, is probably the major reason most people didn’t vote. It’s because they think all the folk involved in politics are wankers.
And, mostly, they’re right.
Which is why they really are voting. They’re voting None Of The Above.
By that reasoning, putting voting online won’t improve voter turnout. The only thing that will is better candidates—or making the better candidates better known.
So what are you doing next election?
3 comments:
I didn't vote. first time I didn't. It had nothing to do with the candidates being wankers, After all we had our excellent "Affordable city" brand to vote for. But registering with the electoral office has it's downsides. None of which are worth the right to vote in a climate where an election is a lolly scramble anyway.
Hi Peter. I'm being pedantic, but you don't even need to get a stamp to send in your vote. Every voting paper comes with a Freepost envelope!
@Tim: True. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who lost their envelope.
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