It’s been a few weeks since the 2019 Federal Election and hopefully it’s been a long enough recovery time for those expecting a different result that night.
A heap of analyses and deep dives have come out attempting to explain why the election went the way it did but it appears The Age has a much simpler, quantifiable reason for what happened: voter turnout was shockingly low for this election.
Despite a promising enrolment rate of about 96.8% – nearly 16.5 million people – only 91ish percent of people actually bothered to vote. While this may seem like a high number, it is lower than the turnout for the 2016 election and could be the worst result since the 1920s (not including some weird years where some seats just had one candidate).
For those who are unaware, compulsory voting was first introduced after the 1922 general election when only 55% of people voted. There’s a reason why compulsory voting is a thing, folks.
Digging in a bit deeper, it seems like the high enrolment rate was a result of the same-sex marriage postal vote but that didn’t translate to folks rocking up on election day because 1.5 million people just straight up didn’t vote. For some seats, it is reported that less than three-quarters of eligible people actually cast a valid ballot. Shocking, just shocking.
But perhaps the most worrying statistic is the voter turnout drop in Australia’s youngest electorates. In Melbourne, Lingiari, Sydney, Blaxland, and Lalor, seats where the median age is between 30 to 32, turnout hovered between 72.2% (Lingiari) to 87.2% (Lalor) which represents a big drop from the 2016 general election.
In fact, the turnout numbers in all these seats have been dropping since 2007 and show no sign of reversing. What’s the point of having compulsory voting if you’re not going to exercise that right, people?
As for why young people didn’t bother to vote, lead researcher of the Australian National University’s Australian Election Study, Ian McAllister, says it has something to do with folks just not giving a crap.
“They’re not socialised into the whole experience of voting.
“They’re busy with their lives and even though they’ve enrolled to vote they’re just not that interested in going through with the process.”
Something must also be said about the penalty for “not providing a sufficient reason” for voting, which just a measly $20, meaning that people would rather cop the fine than bothering to show up on election day.
So to sum it up, voter turnout was worrying low despite high enrollment rates, over 1.5 million people didn’t bother voting, fewer young people are showing up on election day, and folks would rather cop a $20 fine than embracing their right to vote.
Good work, Australia. I hope the $30 million in fines for not voting was worth whatever we get for the next three years and for not exercising your democratic right.