Local businessman pushing to improve dismal voter turnout

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – How do you encourage over 200,000 people to vote in this fall’s municipal election in Vancouver?

A Dunbar businessman is trying to tackle voter apathy by convincing 50 per cent of eligible voters, plus one, to cast a ballot on November 15th.

Mark Andruff is a realtor and community activist in the Dunbar neighbourhood who has created VancouverDecides2014.org, a blog dedicated to helping citizens decide to vote.

“We didn’t vote effectively as a community last time around — less than one in five people voted for our elected officials. That is characteristically the case, but I’m suggesting it’s not healthy for us as a community,” he tells News1130.

Andruff feels election results would be better balanced if more people were engaged in the process, but convincing roughly a quarter-million eligible voters to make the effort might be a tough task.

“It’s a very challenging issue. What we have to do first is state an objective as a community. In my view we want to accomplish getting 50 per cent, plus one to vote. If we use the numbers from the last election, that’s 209,440. If we had that many people at the polls voting, we could say it’s a fair election.”

He says the consequence of not voting is a civic administration with a $1.2 billion budget “spending it as they wish.”

“And seeing the amount of recent public outcry over land use issues, community centres, and legal injunctions, one can appreciate the benefit of a broader representation of voters.”

To help change voter behaviour, Andruff is asking people to actually book a time with the polling station.

“Make sure, right now, you plan to go and vote. That’s a vital behaviour. The second crucial behaviour to change is to get people to understand what the issues are. You can not pick up that thing that comes in the mail, go to the polling station and go down the list blindly voting for people. You have to take time to understand the candidates, what their issues are, what the parties are and what their platforms are. Have some understanding of what you’re getting yourself into.”

That takes time and effort, which is why Andruff is trying to start the conversation 10 months ahead of the civic election.

“This needs to be talked about, this needs to be dealt with. I’d go so far as to say we need a consequence if there’s another tepid turnout. You can talk about the Australian example of taxing people for not showing up at the polls but I don’t think we need money in the equation, I think we need shame.”

If fewer than 50 per cent of voters take part, Andruff would like to see the newly elected council “do the right thing” and pass a motion that acknowledges that the city government was elected with “less than a simple majority of electoral votes.”

“This is pretty idealistic, there’s no question about it, but if one person stands up and says we have to change and people look at him like he’s the village idiot, there will likely be at least one person in the room who says they agree,” says Andruff.

“That’s who we are trying to reach. I don’t care whether you are left, right or centre, we just have to do a better job than one out of five people deciding for everyone else.”

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