In the past 25 years, the turnout of voters at general election time has fallen from 76.31 per cent to 62.73 per cent of the electorate. That is a worrying trend in an increasingly complex society and one that must be addressed if democracy is to continue to operate effectively in this State.
All political parties face obstacles in persuading their supporters to turn out and vote and, according to an extensive survey published by the Central Statistics Office, the greatest difficulty lies in convincing younger voters and the unemployed that the process is meaningful and immediately relevant to them.
In some other European countries, citizens are penalised if they do not exercise the franchise. But Professor Richard Sinnott of UCD, who suggested the survey, does not support such an approach, believing that the right to vote also implies a right to abstain. Instead, he has suggested that more should be done by government and the political parties to facilitate voting and to mobilise the electorate. Polling day has already been changed to Friday to encourage third level students to participate and some consideration has been given to Saturday and Sunday voting. Various forms of electronic voting, along with more extensive postal voting, may also be introduced.
Last May, two-out-of-five unemployed people did not vote, nearly double the abstentionist figure for those gainfully employed. Because the unemployment level is low at present, however, the number involved was small. Far more worrying was the reluctance of first-time voters to exercise the franchise. Nearly 60 per cent of 18 to 19-year- olds declined to become involved and the participation figure only reached 53 per cent in the 20-24 age group. Behaviour is obviously influenced by peer groups, because 83 per cent of those who voted said their families and friends had also participated.
After the age of 35 years, more than 80 per cent of adults vote. But if the pattern of alienation that has emerged amongst young people begins to persist into middle age, the quality of our democracy would suffer. Young people are interested in politics and political parties and they care about the form government takes. But they do not learn about politics in school and they are not properly motivated to vote until they begin to mature and settle down. Political parties, the education system and the media could make that learning curve faster by making the process more accessible and the electorate better informed. It is a real and important challenge and one that would pay long-term dividends if it was successfully surmounted.