Voter Tune-Out and Election Turnout

The banner year for "none of the above" continues apace.

Over the past two weeks, there have been four provincial and two territorial elections in which incumbents were returned to power amid record lows for voter turnout. "For those who believe in the old adage that if you don’t vote, you can’t complain, it should be a quiet four years ahead," remarks the Toronto Star's Tim Harper as he looks at the factors that kept more than half of eligible voters in Ontario away from the polls last week. (To be fair, 76 per cent of voters cast ballots in the Yukon.) Dalton McGuinty was re-elected to govern Ontario with just 18 per cent of support from all citizens over the age of 18 in the province. Why? Harper cites election fatigue, campaigns bereft of inspiring ideas, and a general "lack of anger" among voters for the ever-decreasing numbers, combined with ruling parties "happy to keep turnout low because, historically, low turnout means advantage to the incumbent." So low turnout becomes a self-perpetuating cycle, in which incumbents have little incentive to correct the democratic deficit, and voters see little reason to cast a ballot if they know it probably won't change much. Depressed yet?

Robert Asselin, writing for iPolitics.ca, thinks the media deserve some of the blame because of how they cover politics, choosing to present "120-second reports that focus mostly on controversies" instead of pursuing "rigorous analysis." Voter cynicism is bound to increase when the public only ever sees the negative side of politics – whether it's bickering in legislatures or relentless attack ads – but if that's all politicians choose to show us, then we're not so sure it's the media that is to blame. But Asselin is bang-on in his belief that politics no longer attracts the country's best and brightest: "It has become increasingly difficult to attract people at the height of their career. The ones who succeed and last are, for the most part, professional politicians." The un-ceremonious failure of accomplished political scientist and journalist Michael Ignatieff is a case in point. Take a look at the front benches of the Harper government, or in any of the provinces – there's hardly a minister who has done anything substantial outside of glad-handing through the party ranks. These politicians might understand the inner workings of legislatures better than physicians or small-business owners, but such a political culture also leads to people feeling like they are less and less able to take part meaningfully in the political process. Apathy at polling stations is only one symptom of that disease.

Low turnout always leads to the "Turnout Nerds" proselytizing for some new idea that is bound to fix things, a phenomenon that Macleans' Colby Cosh thinks we'd be better off without. As evidence, he points to the mantra that fixed election dates would increase turnout because they make politics easier to follow. Seven provinces (and the feds) adopted them, but turnout has only decreased. And the latest antidote being proffered by the Nerds – online voting – seems like just another method that's begging to be ignored by the public and, more importantly, one that fails to get at the core of what is ailing this most important foundation of our democratic process. "Voter turnout is the kind of imaginary issue that spurs people to parrot pieties to pollsters, but the turnout itself is a perfect revealed-preference measure of how much people actually care," says Cosh. It's a thought that raises an interesting question: Do we really need to make voting easier than it already is for the sake of getting the disinterested to cast uninformed, half-hearted ballots? This panacea of the day will just kick the real issue of fostering meaningful democratic engagement down the road. Working toward a government that is responsive to the demands of the public, honest in its dealings, and presents clear policy objectives to voters during election time may not be easy. For the sake of the country's democracy, it's an infinitely better goal to pursue than allowing us to vote on our iPhones.