Young Voter's Attitude Towards Election

Young Voter's Attitude towards Election

William E. Simon once said, "Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote". Voting is a right that every citizen should exercise, but we are failing to do so. Through this research I am going to understand the reasons behind non-voters.

There are three important aspects; the first aspect is the group of people that fail to vote, the second is why there is such a low turnout, and finally is the voter's attitude. At the end of my research I am going to add my ideas to resolve this on going issue.

I collected my data from 2004, 2006 and 2008 on the Estimated Voter Turnout in Canada by Age Groups to answer my first aspect.

In 2004, we can see around 37% of youth around 18 - 24 voted, lowest among the age groups. In 2006

we saw a growth of about 6.8%. Finally in 2008, we saw a decline to 35.6% youth voters. After analyzing my data I saw some thing weird that was a growth in 2006. The data



was right but the younger population at that time was greater and hence increase in voter turnout. To conclude my first detail, the younger generation from ages 18 - 27 are the groups of people that failed to vote. My second and third aspects can be answer by one large survey conducted in 2009 to understand the lowest ever turnout in 2008 election, which was about 58.8%. By analyzing the survey we can clearly see that 18 - 29 age group people are not

interested in politics and are also not aware of the polling locations.

To conclude 18 - 29 age group people are not interested in politics because they are not educated about the benefits of deciding a proper government. Instead they spend time on social networking. Hence, the public volunteers should target social networking sites to educate about elections and politics. To develop a better understanding about election, high schools are the proper place to begin. Students should be educated about the benefits of an election before they are eligible to vote. By not voting you are not just letting your self down but the whole country as stated by William E. Simon.