While older voters traditionally have gone to the polls in droves, this year students may have saw their vote share go up extensively. That is at least at St. Thomas.
STU held a “Get Out The Vote” campaign and, according to Student Union President Megan Thomson, the campaign was a success.
“In the 2011 election the voter turnout numbers for youth aged 18 to 25…was 35 per cent and that’s awful,” said Thomson. “We received 858 pledges [to vote]…There’s a population of that is eligible to vote at STU of approximately 1,700 students which means our pledges represent approximately half.”
The number may actually be higher said Thomson.
“We estimate at least another 20 per cent voted [who didn’t pledge],” said Thomson. “Putting our estimated voter turnout, which we feel very comfortable estimating, at about 70 per cent.”
It wasn’t just at STU that voter turnout was high. Overall turnout in last week’s federal election was up from 2011. The national numbers show that 68.5 per cent of registered voters nationwide cast a ballot, the highest number since the 1993 election. The numbers for New Brunswick are even higher with 74.6 per cent of registered voters making it to the polls.
Many different narratives have already begun to try and explain the result of the election and the accompanying turnout. In terms of why student turnout appears to have gone up Thomas said it’s multifaceted.
“One the election was closer than most, I think there was a lot of suspense as to who would win the election,” said Thomson. “I think another one of the factors was there was very good candidates in the riding. I had a lot of students approach me saying, ‘I voted for the first time in this election because I have a candidate that I really believe in voting for.’”
Pundits are pointing to the Prime Ministership of Stephen Harper as the galvanizing factor behind both the turnout, and the result. This may have been on the minds of students as well. Conservatives traditionally have not courted the student vote. Fredericton’s Conservative candidate Keith Ashfield didn’t attend the debate held on campus, and was not available to speak with The Aquinian.
The numbers that the “Get Out The Vote” campaign released are by no means airtight. A pledge to vote is just that, a pledge, especially when the campaign was offering a chance to win a $50 prepaid credit card. There is no way to make sure that someone who said they would vote did in fact vote. The 20 per cent figure on top of that is also purely theoretical. That being said Thomas is confident in the numbers.
“We know that if students tell us their voting, it is incredibly likely that they will vote,” said Thomson.
