Think all millennials are apathetic voters? Here's why you're wrong

Voting among the youngest electors has been on the upswing in recent federal elections and in Ontario.

Thestar.com
March 18, 2018
By Sabrina Nanji

Nana Agyemang will probably do what millennials do and snap a "democraselfie" when she votes in June, continuing the Twitter trend from 2015 - when the election day selfie, and the youth vote, went viral.

It shows for the first time she is actually excited to cast a ballot.

"Before, I never cared for it," Agyemang said.

Like many millennials, the 24-year-old Humber College student seems to have preferred expressing her political voice in forms of engagement other than voting.

Agyemang volunteers with a citizen empowerment project that ran a get-out-the-vote drive in 2015 in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood where she grew up, which had a lower turnout than other spots in the GTA.

"If you want your voice to be heard and you feel like (it's possible) to do something positive in your community, it is right for you to vote," she said.

Her experience isn't unique among millennials. A 2015 report from democracy advocacy group Samara Canada suggests people under 30 participate in non-voting civic and political activities just as much or more than their parents or grandparents do by marching in the streets, volunteering, joining parties, attending speeches, signing petitions, boycotting and talking politics online.

So it's a mistake when older generations shake their fists at kids these days and dismiss them as lazy or ignorant or apathetic about politics, civic engagement advocates say.

But that engagement hasn't carried over to the ballot box: the youngest generations are the least likely to cast ballots.

Turnout has dropped over generations. In federal elections in the 1960s, about two-thirds of the youngest electors were showing up on polling day; by the mid-1980s, that dwindled to just over half of first-time voters. By 2004, slightly more than a third of youth were voting, said André Blais, a political science professor at the University of Montreal and a Canada Research Chair in electoral studies.

The trend has followed a decline in turnout for all ages, from about 70 per cent in 1993 to 64 per cent in 2000 and an all-time low of nearly 59 per cent in 2008. It ticked up slightly in 2011 to 61 per cent before jumping to 68 per cent in the last vote.

But the decline over the past three decades seems to be levelling off, Blais said.

Since 2004 young voter turnout has hovered around 40 per cent. More recently there has been an uptick.

The 2015 vote saw the highest overall turnout in more than two decades at 68 per cent, driven mainly by the youngest citizens. Turnout among young voters shot up 18 percentage points, to 57 per cent from 39. That was the largest increase among all age groups, but it was still the lowest.

In the last Ontario election there was a 10-percentage point jump among the youngest electors - turnout rose to 34 per cent in 2014 from 24 per cent in 2011, but was still far lower than the overall average of 51 per cent.

Blais said younger generations don't feel like they have as much of a civic responsibility to vote compared to older generations: "In general feelings of duty are weaker."

Young people won't feel obligated to vote if they aren't engaging in between elections, says Kasey Dunn, one of the founders of A Strong 6ix, a non-partisan, progressive-leaning group trying to make politics more accessible.

"It's not voter apathy or disinterest or laziness that keeps young people from engaging in politics but it's actually the way politics is framed ... that really leaves a lot of people out and tells a lot of people this isn't for you, don't even bother paying attention, you're not really wanted here," Dunn said.

The group operates mostly on social media and puts out meme-worthy clips about political goings-on and how-to guides for participating in government, like making a deputation at city hall.

Jamil Jivani, a Osgoode law school professor and founder of the citizen engagement project Agyemang volunteers with, said he encountered mostly youth, newcomers and low-income families that felt the political machine wasn't looking after their interests during his get-out-the-vote drive in Jane and Finch in 2015.

Some younger folks had just finished school and were having trouble landing a job, he said.

That year, turnout in the riding jumped to 59 per cent from 48 per cent - four percentage points higher than the national increase.

"We use (voter turnout) as a way of showing the impact that we had, but to me it's more of a proxy for faith in the democratic process," Jivani said. "Voting winds up being an action we hope people take because they have faith."

According to a 2006 World Values Survey, conducted by a network of social scientists around the world, young Canadians don't think democracy is as important as their parents or grandparents - 45 per cent of people under the age of 30 ranked democracy "absolutely important" compared to 50 per cent of 30- to 49-year-olds and 64 per cent of people over 50. More recent data from the U.S. paints a bleaker picture - about 30 per cent of millennials there think living in a democracy is essential.

It's hard to feel like voting matters if you don't interact much with the system in normal times. Voter turnout is commensurate with age because older people are more likely to own a home, have a family and make more money, said political science professor Nelson Wiseman.

"If you've got parties fighting over the level of taxation, somebody who isn't making that much money thinks what's the difference if my taxes are cut or not," he said. That also explains why younger people are "more radical" than older people.

"They have less at stake in the system," Wiseman said.

Blais said that as people age they are more likely to develop the habit of voting, but that is becoming less pronounced over time.

Carolyn Loutfi, executive director at Apathy Is Boring, an organization aimed at increasing youth civic engagement, said millennials get especially turned off electoral politics if they perceive politicians giving off a tokenistic or transactional vibe.

That includes "breaking campaign promises or not making an effort to engage with them when it's not an election campaign," Loutfi said. "How many MPs do the hard work of being on school campuses in the middle of (a non-election) year?"

Apathy Is Boring asked Canadian millennials in 2017 what keeps them away from the ballot box. Fifteen per cent of respondents said they didn't vote in the last federal election because they didn't like or trust the candidate, 11 per cent said they had no interest, nine per cent said they were uninformed, eight per cent thought their vote wouldn't matter, and 17 per cent said they didn't have time. The rest said they were either out of town, sick, didn't get a voter information card, couldn't get a ride, couldn't make up their mind, or just forgot.

In the same survey, 52 per cent of respondents said they are very or somewhat interested in politics.

Politicos could also do more to rope young people into the process, said Jane Hilderman, executive director at Samara Canada.

Running a campaign isn't cheap and parties focus on wooing those most likely to join their camp, and to actually go out and vote, she said. That creates a "cycle" - if young people are the least likely to vote, parties might think it's not worth the effort to reach out.

There's no "silver bullet" to engage youth but the federal Liberals strategic use of social media won over many millennials in 2015, said David Coletto of Abacus Data. Parties are now honing their social media strategies, not least because data-driven campaigning allows parties to zero in on supporters directly.

"How parties and political leaders and government communicate took some time to catch up," he said.

Coletto says young people could make or break the Ontario Liberals in the June 7 election because they've already introduced youth-friendly goodies such as free tuition for certain post-secondary students, free prescription drugs until your 25th birthday, and the $15 minimum wage, to name a few.

"My sense is ... they don't think they can win unless young people turn out in large numbers," Coletto said.

But it'll take more than a few attractive promises to rally young voters. Coletto says young people helped carry the federal Liberals to power for reasons other than legalized weed, even if that's what some pundits boil it down to.

Agyemang hasn't made up her mind yet. She's only voted once before, right after she turned 18 and only because her mom pulled rank and brought her along to the booth. But she doesn't remember if the election was local or federal, who was on the ticket, or what issues were important to her at the time.

For the Ontario election, Agyemang feels a "responsibility" to make an informed decision. She isn't entirely up to speed on the issues or platform promises yet - she likes free tuition but didn't immediately connect it to the Liberal government that's seeking re-election - but she realizes that's the best way to have a say in public policy that impacts the community she's trying to improve.

"I know that me, voting, can make a difference. So I just won't vote for anybody, I have to really take my time and see who I feel will benefit me and who I feel will be a good opportunity for the community," she said.