Why don’t people vote?

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The last time there was a provincial election in British Columbia, nearly half of eligible voters stayed home.

SFU professor Michael Brydon says part of the reason so many people in this province don’t vote is because the issues are too complicated.

“I’m a politician myself; I’m involved in local government in the Okanagan and I’ve experimented with this,” Brydon tells News1130. “If you ask voters about policy, it’s extremely difficult because the policies are complicated and implications of those policies require expertise and the average voter just isn’t willing to put that kind effort into it.”

Brydon says people tend to be more engaged when they are asked questions that are easily understood.

As an example, he points to the good response his community received when they asked constituents about water bills. People were asked whether they would rather have green lawns and higher water bills or brown lawns and lower water bills.

“We forced them to make a trade-off between taxes and green lawns and in doing that, we were able to measure their willingness to pay for green lawns,” he says. “That becomes really useful because we can give that data to our engineers so they can design a water system that makes people happy.”

He believes when elections are fought over complex issues, like pipelines, it opens the door to one party demonizing the other over what it claims is misinformation.

Speaking with young voters about hitting the polls

If the university students we spoke to are any indication it sounds like this election is going to be different from any other recent vote in this province.

Jillian says that’s because the political climate around the world is changing, “especially with youth. Youth are getting more involved in a lot of movements, if it comes from Idle No More or environment and pipelines. Youth are really active and engaged and I think we’re going to see that in the election.”

Melissa agrees. “I think a lot of people my age are concerned about those issues and one way to have a say is to vote, to go out and vote on those issues.”

We also asked university students why some of their peers don’t turn out to the polls. The leading answers include not knowing who to vote for and not knowing or caring enough about the issues being kicked around in the campaign.

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