Voter Turn Out

      Voter participation varies among different countries and also varies among men, women, ethnicity etc. During class we talked about the different cleavages that try to analyze why people do or do not vote. I believe there are two big factors on why young people do not vote. The first one is the fact that young people do not feel as if their issues are being properly represented. Personally at this point, I don’t care about the main issues politicians believe in because it doesn’t affect me right now, my main concern is my education and if politicians were more concerned about my issues, I’d be more likely to vote during elections. Secondly, the voting age in Canada is eighteen years old that isn’t the ideal age to allow people to vote. Speaking from personal experience, I turned eighteen on October 31^st, which was thirteen days after the federal elections. I’ve always been very concerned about politics and not being able to vote had almost made me not care about elections at all. Thirteen days wouldn’t make a difference in the way I would have voted or my political views. This event alone made me want re-examine the political system we currently have. After much thought, I was able to come up with a solution; Canadian politics should change the voting age to six months before you turn eighteen years old. Six months doesn’t make a person suddenly change their political views nor develop them. There are virtually no down sides to allowing people to vote six months before their 18th birthday, it gives more people the opportunity to vote but at the same time doesn’t force people to. On a more personal note, I’m now 20 years old and still have not been able to experience voting at a federal level simply because there was a election thirteen days before I turned eighteen. This is also another way to deter people from voting; it doesn’t give people the experience and exposure as early as other people. For example, for the next election I will be around twenty-two years old and will be voting for the first time whereas someone next to me could be eighteen years old and have the same experience level as I do. This only leads to deterring people from voting and also causing them to lose interest in politics.

Comedic Cartoon about Voter Participation