Five ways to get Britain voting

It’s been a bad couple of months for British democracy. Last week, as public sector workers across the nation went on strike, right-wing politicians complained that, due to low turnouts, unions were reportedly stopping work on (in the case of Unite, Unison and others) the whim of as little as one in five of their members. Left-wing commentators queried the wisdom of hurling stones from this particular glass house: modern politicians don’t generally have huge mandates for government. Less than half of the electorate in David Cameron’s Witney constituency, for example, voted him in in 2010.

The lack of engagement among union members is just one symptom of a crisis in engagement with the democratic process more generally. The turnout for May’s European Parliament elections was just over 34 per cent. Despite wide media coverage, the turnout at the Newark by-election was only 53 per cent, compared to 71.4 per cent in the constituency at the last general election. As a result of the strikes, the Conservatives have made a 2015 manifesto promise to introduce legislation which would make the support of a stipulated proportion of union members a condition of industrial action. This is a short-sighted response: it isn't fair to expect one set of public bodies to pay the price for a crisis brought about by myriad factors beyond their control.

The debate provoked by last week’s strikes should be a wake-up call for the political class. An increasing number of the most important decisions that affect us all are taken, for the most part, without our involvement. Here are five ways we might begin trying to redress the balance.

Lower the voting age

It’s controversial for all sorts of reasons, but it’s hard to deny that dropping the voting age to 16 would get people to the ballot box. What’s more, this isn’t just because it adds 16-18 year olds to the electorate. One 2002 study which an Electoral Reform Society (ERS) spokesman points me toward argues that most people are “habitual voters” or “habitual non-voters.” Getting people into the habit as early as possible results in a huge boost to turnout over time, because people who otherwise wouldn’t have done so continue to vote throughout their lives. The ERS are strong supporters of a voting age reduction in the UK, arguing that, in combination with a strong programme of citizenship education, it could help to draw voters into the democratic fold before cynicism sets in. Scotland is trying it out this September: the voting age for the independence referendum is 16, a move which Menzies Campbell told us might have surprising results.

Hold elections at the weekend

Why not move voting out of working hours? My colleague Jessica Abrahams wrote about this after the European elections, when the UK was one of just three out of 28 member states to hold elections during the working week. Research into the likely impact of changing the voting day is limited, but a 2009 electoral commission survey (following that year’s European and local elections) found that a third of people who didn’t vote said they’d be more likely to if they could do so on a weekend. In any case, such a simple solution is surely worthy of further investigation.

Introduce online voting

Online voting doesn’t always increase turnout by itself. Data from Estonia—where online voting has been available since 2005—shows that it is often people who were voting already who are switching to the service. But in the UK it might help tip wavering potential voters over the edge. Dr Andy Williamson, founder of open government consultancy Democrati.se, points out that young people in Britain are actually highly engaged with political and social issues, but don’t necessarily feel compelled to vote. This is true of the population more widely: a 2013 Hansard society report (will link) found that, while interest in politics had remained unchanged since their previous report in 2012, the proportion of those certain to vote had declined by 17 per cent in two years. If people could exercise their democratic right under the duvet on their smartphones, that might change.

Hold ballots in the workplace

This is particularly relevant in the context of trade unions: when you’re asking members to vote on issues that affect their place of work, it makes sense to engage with them there. A spokesman for the public sector union Unison argues that when they conduct informal workplace ballots on industrial action, turnout can be as high as 70 per cent. The formal ballots (conducted by post) required to call a strike can often attract less than half that. Little research has been conducted into this in the context of political elections, but given that many of us work very long hours (12 per cent of us do more than a 50-hour week, according to the OECD), it makes sense to research the potential benefits of workplace voting.

Make the polls a party

What if elections could be something other than a chore? A 2007 Yale University Study, entitled Putting the Party Back Into Politics, found that making voting into a festive, social occasion encouraged people to show up and cast their ballot. Researchers ran publicity campaigns and festivals at polling sites for two US local elections, offering “food, drinks, raffles, cotton candy, and a DJ” (who says scientists don’t know how to party?). They found that turnout increased by 10.4 per cent in one case. Fun, informative events have also been shown to be effective in encouraging voters to register in the first place. The UK youth voting organisation Bite the Ballot say their first “National Voter Registration Day,” held this February, persuaded about 50,000 people to register at a cost of 25p each (compared to a cost, Bite the Ballot claim, of £25 per registration for the Electoral Commission’s own programmes).