Is it time to make voting easier?

Jersey isn't particularly well known for its sparklingly high election turnouts - at a Constable Election in St Helier where Alvin Aaron stood against Simon Crowcroft, the turnout struggled to reach the mid-20s.

At the last main election in 2008, where Jersey voted for six Senators and a number of Constables - which also included a referendum on Central European Time - turnouts were about 45% - 50% in some Parishes and 34% in St Helier.

Jersey's electoral turnout is near the bottom of the world election turnout table - with the highest in St Mary with 59.5% at the last election.

At the most recent island wide election, where Senator Le Gresley topped the poll, turnout hit just 30%.

Now, Deputy Geoff Southern has come up with an idea he hopes will solve the problem.

He wants to make Election Day, on Wednesday 19 October 2011, a public holiday.

His idea is that, by giving people the day off work, they will be more likely to turn up and vote.

There are potentially many reasons for the low turnout in Jersey - many short term residents not particularly interested in voting, a confusing electoral system and states make-up or even a general lack of interest.

Would giving people the day off be enough to overcome those issues?

The States of Jersey spent about £30 thousand before the election in 2008 to encourage registration and turnout - overall the number of people registering was around 2% up on last time and turnout was about the same.

If investing in awareness and education campaigns hasn't worked and there doesn't seem to be an appetite amongst current States Members for any serious electoral reform - should we be looking at more radical approaches to increasing voter turnout?

Changing results

A higher turnout could change the face of Jersey politics - for example, if St Helier saw a similar turnout to that of the country parishes the top six may well have been different at the end of the night.

There were 1400 votes between Sarah Ferguson in sixth and Geoff Southern in fifth. Geoff Southern came third in St Helier and Sarah Ferguson ninth - an extra 20% of people voting could have seen sixth and seventh place overall swap round.

So what can be done - or should anything be done - to increase turnout at the islands elections?

Compulsory

The country with the highest election turnout in the world is Australia - they see an average of a 95% turnout across all their elections.

This is mainly due to the fact that since the 1920s voting has been compulsory in Australia - everybody eligible has to register and vote.

Australia isn't alone either, it's also compulsory to vote in several other countries around the world including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Liechtenstein and Singapore - among others.

Belgium sees an average turnout of 91% and Brazil 83%. The islands average electoral turnout is below the USA, Switzerland and Poland.

There are many arguments that could be put against compulsory voting. It could be said that as voting is a civic duty and not a civil right - you shouldn't be forced to carry it out.
While citizens may exercise their legal rights (free speech, voting, etc.) they are not compelled to.

But the evidence on the other hand does show that it gets people voting - would introducing it for say three elections to show people how things work and then dropping it help?

Incentives

Should the law be changed so that people can be rewarded for voting? How about an income tax allowance for people that vote or a direct cash reward?

What about a one month 1% drop in your ITIS payments?

Or is it better to not even stray into the subject of rewards for voting - should it be something you choose to do freely and if you decide you don't want to - you should be allowed to make that decision for yourself.

Making it simpler

Would introducing online voting, mobile phone voting or even just allowing you to vote at any polling station in the island make a difference?

I have voted in every election that I could since I turned 18, apart from the last Senatorial by-election.

I had moved to St Clement just before the election and had to get my children to school in town.

I don't drive and was working until after the polls closed - so getting out to the polling station would have involved getting a bus back to St Clement and then walking to the polling station in the two hours I had before I started work.

In the end I just didn't bother. But if I could have gone to a polling station in town I would have happily voted.

This is something that could benefit more people and encourage them to vote.
With the average working day running from 9am to 5pm with people travelling half an hour either side and polls open from 8am until 8pm - the majority of the polling day is spent at work - usually in town.

So how about this - open up Gloucester Hall at Fort Regent, put one ballot box for each parish or district, a long line of curtains and allow people to fill out the ballot paper and drop it into the relevant box.

Then, at the end of the day a van could take each of the ballot boxes to the relevant parish hall.

This blog post is based on an article I wrote in 2008 looking at whether compulsory voting could be introducing in Jersey.