John MacDonald: We need compulsory voting - Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

If you voted in this year’s local body elections, congratulations. You can consider yourself a member of a very exclusive club.

Because, this year, voter turnout around the country was the lowest it’s been in 36 years. Which is pitiful.

So pitiful that I don’t even think my idea of having just one main voting day - like we have for central government elections - would make much of a difference.

In fact, I think there’s only one way to fix it. Something which has already been tried somewhere else with immediate results.

Because something needs to be done. Because local councils matter.

They have far more influence on our daily lives than central government ever will.

Our councils are responsible for the roads we drive on everyday. They’re responsible for getting the rubbish collected and getting water services to our houses and making sure the sewers work properly. They run our libraries. All sorts of things that we use and rely on every day.

Our councils are the majority owners of key infrastructure services. Christchurch City Council, for example, has the airport, the Port at Lyttelton, the Orion electricity lines company and others.

Not worth taking an interest in who is leading these outfits? Or having an influence in who is leading these outfits? Sixty-eight percent of us don’t think so.

Talk about apathy.

Andrew Geddis - who is a political scientist at the University of Otago - reckons that one of the main reasons for the low turnout is that the voting period is just way too long.

And people just forget about the voting papers sitting on the kitchen bench. He also points out the benefit of having one main voting day - like we do in the central government elections.

I used to think the same.

But I see only one solution. Which is something people talk about in relation to central government elections. But I think we need it for local government too.

Compulsory voting.

Because, after this pitiful turnout in this year’s elections, we need a kick up the jacksy - and making it compulsory to vote is the only way to achieve that.

In Australia, compulsory voting in federal elections was introduced in 1924 and, since then, voter turnout has never fallen below 90 percent.

More relevant, though, is what they’ve done in Tasmania. Three years ago, Tasmania made voting in local government elections compulsory, as well. And just like compulsory voting in federal elections sorted out the low participation problem, the same thing happened in Tasmania with their local body elections.

In just one election, voter turnout increased by 44.6 percent.

Councils in Tasmania have four-year terms - so the 2022 turnout is the most recent example.

But it shows you, doesn‘t it, how compulsory voting in local body elections works. And how it could work just as well here.

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