I've seen a few posts on my social media over the past month from young people moaning that "they're locking us out of voting". They, presumably being the rich white patriarchal establishment, us, presumably being the 18 to 24 year olds. What absolute hogwash. Yes, the rules around enrolment have changed and same day enrolment is no longer possible, but they are doing everything they can to get young people registered to vote and have been doing so since time immemorial, since every election.  

In 2020 the Electoral Commission paid 12 Kiwi social media stars a combined $160k or thereabouts to create and share dozens of pieces of nonpartisan content about voting on their TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook pages. Overall, in 2020 the Commission spent $3 million on advertising that targeted 18 to 29 year olds alone. The budgeting bill for advertising was higher than that, but $3 million was spent on younger voters. It'll be more this time round, heaven only knows what's been spent, it'll take an OIA to find out.  

I don't think there's anything wrong with a message that says if you want to vote, you've got to take it seriously. Registering is a very good start to understanding that with rights come responsibilities. If you want to vote, you have to think about it. If you want to vote, you have to get your act together and enrol. A young colleague was saying to me this very morning that an acquaintance of hers, who would describe herself as an activist and will attend a protest march at the drop of a keffiyeh, posted that she wouldn't normally use her platform to encourage people to vote, but this one matters. What is wrong with using your platform to encourage people to vote?  

I know it's a lot harder to think about issues and problems that we have at home, far easier to rig yourself up a witty slogan painted on a placard and get out there and march, be on the six o'clock news, show that you care. Actually showing that you care is registering, voting, taking an interest, reading the policies, things that 18 to 24 year olds are perfectly capable of doing. And interestingly, of those young people who do get off their chuffs and enrol to vote, they show up on election day.  

Mike was quoting a story from the Herald this morning that showed in '23, 74% of young people who were enrolled to vote did in fact cast their vote. They were the biggest proportion of the enrolled voting population to actually use the power of their vote to cast it. It matters. In our household, I think we've got three of us voting differently across the spectrum. And that's okay, that's democracy, and aren't we lucky to live in a society where men and women can debate political matters, can turn up without fear of getting mown down to cast their vote, to know that for all its faults and for all a few spot issues, voting is fair, you're not going to get corruption at the ballot box.  

It's an imperfect society in which we live. Very few of us going to get a government that we're passionate about. For a lot of us, turning up to vote is going to be holding your nose and ticking the box. But it matters. And if young people cannot be bothered, not be sufficiently informed to understand that they have to enrol to vote, they can't rock up on voting day, then perhaps they shouldn't be in possession of a vote. If they don't care enough, they're not informed enough to know that they need to be enrolled, fine by me if they don't cast their vote.