Elections

Students and Democracy

Voting is the basis of our democracy, the political act that gives the actions of the government their legitimacy and power. It is also dying, with every election seeing fewer and fewer people casting their ballots. Our most recent provincial election saw only 40.6% of eligible voters coming out to the polls and even fewer young Albertans.

Unfortunately the democratic system itself is partially to blame for this poor turnout, particularly among post-secondary students. There are numerous barriers for students to get through in order to vote. Some of those barriers are knowledge-based – students, particularly those voting for the first time, do not have the knowledge needed to ensure their vote is cast in the election. Some of those barriers are access-related – students are all too often in the wrong location on election day to vote, without the time to find their correct polling station in another community before polls close. And some come as a result of an Elections Act that tries to fit students in an anachronistic category of children living away from home rather than the independent adults most students are.

During any given provincial election hundreds of students are turned away from what they assume is their polling station, told that they would need to vote elsewhere – this is not the pattern to repeat in order to reverse the trend of declining voter turnout and civic engagement. We need to make it easier for Alberta’s students to vote and we need to do more to actively encourage their votes, along with all Albertans, to make sure our democracy is healthy. These changes are necessary to ensure our government is able to tell the country and the world that our democratic processes are representative of our values and views.

Our Elections Act and the policies governing elections are long overdue for changes.
Students and younger Albertans in general find it frustrating to be told that their issues are not at the forefront of the agenda because “they don’t vote.”

They likely find much in common with the subject of Eddie Cochran’s 1958 hit “Summertime Blues” when he laments:

I’m gonna take my problem to the United Nations Well I called my congressman and he said quote: “I’d like to help you son but you’re too young to vote” Sometimes I wonder what I’m gonna do
But there ain’t no cure for the summertime blues.

In this case however, the age and status discrimination is not overt but rather built subtly into the system. It breeds cynicism and establishes a positive feedback cycle of disenchantment that leads to further retreats from the political process by an entire generation.

Fortunately, there are some clear and easy changes that the Government of Alberta and Elections Alberta can do before the next provincial election to make it easier for post-secondary students to vote. The Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS), representing students at the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, and the University of Lethbridge are making five recommendations to break down the barriers to voting by Alberta’s post-secondary students.

• Allow students to choose between their home during studies and their family home to be their ordinary residence;

• Establish advance voting stations for multiple constituencies on post-secondary campuses;
• Permit advance voting for all electoral divisions at any returning office as well as at any advance voting station;
• Select returning officers earlier in the electoral process; and
• Have Elections Alberta and individual returning officers work with students’ unions to increase communications with students and encourage voter turnout among students.

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