Valuing the teen vote by Violet Tucker

VALUING THE TEEN VOTE

VIOLET TUCKER sees power in the vote.

There has been a lot of media coverage about the efforts of some teenage activists to lower the voting age. They argue they should not be excluded from decision-making processes that will dictate their future. We look around and can see the consequences of policy and politics in which we’re not included.

I asked about twenty of the girls who make up my year group a few simple questions to assess just how much they are tracking politics. The first was: ‘Who is the deputy prime minister of New Zealand?’ I got mixed responses. ‘Um, Winston Peters?’ Others said Ashley Bloomfield – giving him a promotion he probably wouldn’t want. Most just gave me a shrug. The sort of very conscious shrug that is a definite indication that I should change conversation topics quickly.

But I was not going to give up just yet. The second question I asked was: ‘Are you going to vote in 2026?’ To that, there was an almost unanimous answer of ‘No.’

Interesting, I thought. I could chalk it up to the fact that I’m asking fourteen-year-olds about a preference they may not consider for the next four years. But that does not interfere with the fact that my highly unscientific survey indicates that New Zealand’s prospective voting community doesn’t want any part of ‘all that stuff happening down in Wellington.’

Imagine if they looked at it like this – six votes. Six people. Would they change their mind if they thought six people could tip a scale? That six people could decide the future of a city. That’s a handful of people waiting at a bus stop. That’s one more person that can fit in the average car. Yet, there is no imagination needed. Picture Hamilton’s Mayoral election in 2016. A hard-fought competition with very different ideologies involved. Six votes between Andrew King and Paula Southgate.

Those six people could have been new voters. It might have been their first major input to the future of their city. If those six people didn’t vote, and a couple more decided to stay at home or chuck their voting paper into the recycling bin, it would have made a major difference.

Many people who don’t bother to vote, they don’t bother because they think their vote will not count. But here’s the thing – someone will count their vote. There are three underlying issues I see present in our current society when referring to the current voting approach of adolescents. The first is the sheer lack of interaction between prospective voters and political candidates and vice versa. Perhaps if students had an equal opportunity to listen to Aotearoa’s political parties’ views on world topics, this common trend of ambivalence would inevitably decrease.

The second issue is, it’s not just the absence of information that causes so many young students to be so disinterested in politics, it’s the misinformation and stereotypes that these New Zealand political parties don’t seem to be able to address. Perhaps they don’t want to. In an age where social media will serve more as a relevant factor for up-andcoming voters, these deceptions online are going to deter our generation from supporting certain groups and individuals or perhaps supporting others on an illegitimate basis. We aren’t often aware of the truth that lies behind what we’re told and it’s sometimes very difficult to find out. Particularly if you don’t care all that much in the first place. The third issue relates to political literacy and how it is becoming less and less a part of a social setting. We have glimpsed through protests and assembled movements that this generation can circulate views and ignite change, but we aren’t taught about how our opinions can be articulated through a vote. It has always been a taboo thing to ask someone who they are voting for, but failing to have simple conversations about world issues is something that is destroying this generation’s input into the future of New Zealand. I am lucky to go to a school where we have been taught about government. But I have to dig out for myself information about what political parties stand to change.

Perhaps if younger people could vote, they would care more. Politicians would likely focus more on the simple concept of ‘voting is important. Go and vote.’ I think political parties should invest more time in the younger voting and non-voting demographic and not just with bribes and events that are simply patronising. I believe that people should listen more. Political figures who make themselves known to younger communities could help to end this rising trend of sheer disinterest in politics.

They need to come down from their offices and reach out before internet algorithms make it even harder for them to create balanced debates.