Apparently, voter apathy was not restricted to the young at the 41st election. Below are the numbers broken down of the wall of shame known as the non-voters:
18 to 24 years old: 29.9%
25 to 32 years old: 30.8%
35 to 44 years old: 27.5%
45 to 54 years old: 29.1%
55 to 64 years old: 25.8%
65 to 74 years old: 21.3%
75 years old and over: 13.4%
The reasons excuses cited for not voting were also pretty flimsy and really don’t hold water, given all the options available to voters, if one bothered to either call Elections Canada or consult their website. Early polls, special ballot voting, hell, a commenter on the Grope & fail comment board, who was in France during the election season managed to vote and found it quite painless:
During the entire advance voting period as well as on voting day, I was on holiday in France. I looked at the instructions on the Elections Canada website for out-of-country voting. I filled out a form and scanned my passport, then faxed that to Elections Canada. Less than a week later, I received my voting package by general delivery, and sent my ballot right back with lots of time to spare.
Many cited excuses like “Oh, they don’t engage me!” or “I’m just not interested!” or work and family obligations. Yes, there is the “I just plum forgot, Guffaw!” The real reason is laziness, pure and simple and it is a major character flaw, especially when it comes to exercising our civic duty. We outta be damned appreciative that we have this right.
Laziness, a character flaw, my father deeply frowned upon when my brother and I were growing up. It was right up there with dishonesty. It should not be soothed or rewarded.
Employers are required by law to give employees a few hours off on election day to go vote.
Doesn’t the future of your family largely depend on going out to vote and keeping up with the issues? I would certainly think that would be far more vital than catching the men’s Olympic Hockey final or finding out what Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge is wearing during the Royal visit.
Hell, even if you’re hospitalized, an Elections Canada Employee comes by so patients can vote. Prisoners are able to vote.
I also remember many candidates on Twitter offering rides to polling stations for those who needed it. Even before the social media age, I remembered various candidates advertising rides to polling stations, that all it took was a call to the campaign office, particularly when I was living in rural areas.
I’m also sick of this whole idiotic meme of “engage me!” “They’re not engaging me!” Oh Sweet Jesus! Engage yourselves! Do your own homework! What is it exactly that you want them to do? Perform death defying circus acts? Oh, the Obama speeches. Have we not learned anything from Obama? It turned out speeches were all that he knew how to do. He turned out to be an abject failure, otherwise.
I’ve read other dumb comments on the Grope and Fail comment boards; those from those claiming to be so disgusted with Stevie Spiteful and his Harpercons that they decided to stay home. Well, allow me to break it to ya, by staying home instead of going out to vote for anyone else but Stevie’s merry band of thieves, you endorsed Stevie’s acts. You endorsed his puppets. I’ve always said that those who stayed home on election day voted for Stevie and the Harpercons. Simple as that. Stevie knows it, why do you think those Cons from their war room went to all the trouble dreaming up vote suppression stunts? I thought this one from Jezebel5 was particularly adorable:
When faced with the scenario of having to choose between 3 rapists. It’s best to stand back and let the strongest rapist prevail among them to rape you.
Huh? Isn’t that how fascism gets started?
Now it seems that some political scientist and other folks are proposing online voting. A very bad idea. For openers, how can the vote and voter be authenticated? Can it be trusted? I don’t think so. I don’t even trust online banking. Furthermore, I tried filing my taxes online, but it was so complicated, that I gave up and just printed everything and mailed it the old fashioned way. I have a feeling it would be simpler to show up at the polling station. Then, as someone who assists an IT department, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the tech issues involved, like the system crashing, thus erasing all electronic information recorded. Then what happens? Is it as if those online votes never happened? What about hackers playing around? With every vote suppressing stunt those Harpercons pulled, I don’t think they’re above having skilled hackers play around with the Elections Canada servers. Also, who’s to say voters won’t just plum forget to go to the Elections Canada voting site to vote when it’s time? Will they sacrifice a few precious minutes from their social media or video game playing time to vote? Besides, offering online voting is simply rewarding that bad behavior of laziness.
No, replacing our first past the post system with proportional representation won’t change that much, simply because most don’t know the difference between the two. In fact, Brian Tanguay, a political science professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, admits that in democracies that use a proportional representation voting system haven’t seen their voting turn out numbers rise. Somehow, those same flimsy excuses which really boil down to laziness would still apply.
Don’t like the traditional parties? There are always independent candidates and candidates in fringe parties running in all ridings. There are all kinds of fringe parties to suit all tastes to cast a protest ballot. Perfect if you live in a riding touted as a strong hold for a certain party or candidate. Besides, I think the last election taught us that there is no such thing as a safe seat, unless, of course, you live in Blue Conservative Alberta, thus proving every vote does indeed count.
No, the answer is something the Harpercons will never ever entertain because it plays against their own self-serving interests and I seriously doubt any of the opposition parties, if they ever get into power, and at this rate, it looks problematic, will entertain neither, because it’s not exactly a crowd pleaser, but the only real solution is mandatory voting like in Australia. It is the only way to actually have a real turn out and have real numbers. None of this 27% of all Canadians giving a party a majority to govern. It’s that simple.
I’ve mentioned this before and I will mention it again. Folks in the Middle-East have been sacrificing life and limb and taking to the streets to rid themselves of dictators who have long overstayed their welcome; demanding democracy which includes the right to free elections. Yet, we can’t be bothered to appreciate our own democratic rights. Worse, our democracy is eroding and not only is no one noticing, many appear to be embracing this.
The next four years are going to be one sorry lesson for those apathetic voters, assuming they learn anything that is, assuming they shed the ‘Jezebel5′ attitude. One can only hope they wake up before it’s too late. By the time 2015 comes around and comes near to the end, and if an election still hasn’t been called, will voters and non-voters, especially even notice? Will they wake up and demand “Hey Steve! Where’s our election?”