Gen Y too lazy to vote in federal election

By LAUREN HAYWARD
Almost a third of young Australians are not enrolled to vote and a lack of motivation is to blame.

According to statistics released by the Australian Electoral Commission, 18 to 24 year olds make up the majority of the 1.2 million Australians not enrolled.

This means that about 400,000 young people will not have their voice heard if they do not to enrol before the federal election is called this year.

Although voting is compulsory in Australia, there is very little the AEC can do to follow-up enrolments, aside from sending enrolment documents to the homes of potential voters and encouraging voting in schools.

Margot Firth, of the AEC Education Centre, says that the AEC runs various programs for different aged students.

“There are programs aimed at primary students learning about the basics of voting, to high school students learning about the importance free elections in a democratic government,” she said.

Despite the education, new enrolment time limits have had an effect.

Laws introduced before the last federal election in 2007 have changed enrolment eligibility. These laws prevent enrolment as soon as the writs are issued for an election, essentially preventing enrolment as soon as an election is called.

These laws combined with the difficulty and tedium of enrolment are said to be a major factor in the lack for youth representation on the electoral role.

“I can understand that many people would find it time-consuming to fill out the enrolment forms, especially those who see voting as a burden rather than a privilege,” Firth said.

For these reasons it has been suggested that automatic enrolment may be a solution. If each Australian citizen is automatically enrolled on their 18th birthday it would obviously eliminate the lack of young people on the roll.

However this approach does not solve the problem of people older than 18 refusing to be on the roll.

“If people were more passionate about voting and realised it’s not so difficult to enrol, maybe we would see more young people at the ballot boxes,” Firth said.

By making enrolment easier and simpler and emphasising the importance of voting in the democratic process, enrolment rates may rise and voter turn-out may increase.