Getting youth to the polls - a perennial problem
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Why are youth enrollment rates falling for the sixth consecutive election?
Getting young people to the polling booth is hard at the best of times. And this election year is no exception.
Enrollment rates for the country's youngest potential voters have slid for a sixth consecutive election year reaching the lowest point since at least 2011. With just three months until election day, concerns are growing that a generation could be left without a voice at the ballot box. In twenty twenty-three nearly three quarters of enrolled voters aged eighteen to twenty-four cast a ballot. That's more than some older groups. But the fear is, however, that young people seem to think politics makes little or no difference. So why Why is youth enrollment going down? Labour Leader Chris Hipkins says, I don't think the Electoral Commission have done well on voter enrollment for several elections now. One young person talking to RNZ had a simpler answer.
Things are screwed anyway, why try?
And now there are concerns youth voters might miss out on the opportunity to enroll and vote thanks to some recent changes.
The changes would mean enrollment would close before the twelve day long advance voting period begins.
Kiorda, I'm Shalise Tansey and today on the detail. What's being done to get youth to the ballot boxes? And what are the consequences if there are no show?
Those elections, those local body elections, we felt that the seats weren't necessarily voted out. It's just that Māori didn't turn up And vote them in.
That was Anuru Marshall. He's the Po Fakahide or CEO of Tekahui Madu Trust. Later in the podcast, I talked to him about the landline campaign that's being run by the Aewi of Telanaki, encouraging Mori across the Mutu to enroll and vote. But first, I asked Dr. Lara Greaves, Associate Professor in Politics at Victoria University, why for the last six elections, young people are just not enrolling.
We have theories about why youth enrolment might be low this election, but we don't really actually know. Generally people have theorized, political scientists are theorised, commentators and the like. it there's something in the society that's not quite going right and young people are the ones that are picking up on it. So there's a lot of theories for why people don't turn out to vote, why people don't vote, why people don't enroll to vote. And a lot of them are around like the society and a lack of s sense of community or a feeling Like you're connected to your community and you want to put that effort in to enroll, figure out who to vote for and then who vote. So that's kind of one of them. For young people, there's also some theories around
them connecting to politics differently or not being connected to New Zealand politics as such.
How do recent enrolment rule changes affect young voters before advance voting?
So If you're a young person and you're getting most of your information from social media Those social media providers don't necessarily give you New Zealand content. So you might just not have that connection to our politics or political environment. Even if you look at the millennial generation, whose turnout and enrolment has been a lot lower than earlier cohorts. Even if you look at the millennials, they didn't grow up so much or they weren't spending so much time in front of the say the six o'clock news or reading the Herald or reading a traditional newspaper. So that's been another thing is like this just access or the way that we kind of consume media. That's been another sort of explanation for why people don't enroll
So a lot of the media have talked about a lack of hope in the younger generation. Of course, people who are aged under twenty five, that group with the low enrollment, are the people who went to high school, kind of came of age during the COVID years and that they don't necessarily feel like there's a a strong future with a lot of those things like owning a home or having a satisfying, rewarding career, that that's not there for them. So that hope has been a big theory that people have put forth. Um also relating to things like climate change and those big what we call wicked problems in society that there's not a clear solution to those, but they'll affect the young generations the most.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why are youth enrollment rates falling for the sixth consecutive election?
0:05–2:37
2
How do recent enrolment rule changes affect young voters before advance voting?
2:37–5:51
3
What theories explain why young people feel politics doesn’t impact them?
5:51–9:09
4
How does social‑media consumption shape young New Zealanders’ political awareness?
9:09–11:24
5
What role does civics education play in boosting youth voter participation?
11:24–13:54
6
How did the ‘Landline’ campaign engage Māori rangatahi to enrol and vote?
13:54–16:04
7
Why do many young Māori feel their vote won’t make a difference?
16:04–18:58
8
What long‑term risks arise if low youth enrolment becomes a habit?
18:58–21:49