There are several reasons why people decide not to partake in an election. One of the most frequent is, “It doesn’t make a difference anyway!” This is a short sentence with a large statement behind it. Because if you listen closer, at least part of this sentence is claiming, “I myself cannot change anything.”<\/p>\n
Getting to the root of the matter is certainly not easy, but possible. After all, it comes down to your communication with the voters – and you have them in your hand.<\/p>\n
In our series of articles “10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation” we explain to you how you can fine tune your communication to motivate voters. Let’s begin!<\/p>\n
“It’s not enough to address a topic. One has to address the people.” <\/em>\u2013 Stanislaw Jerzey Lec, Polish author-<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A functional approach on its own can have great effect. What does that mean? Let’s take an example from a typical day in the office:<\/p>\n
The executive of a company is sending an email to his team with the prompt for ideas for a new campaign (Example 1). He will certainly receive a response from some of his workers, but not all of them. Some of them just don’t have the time, categorise a mass email as unimportant, or think that they don’t have much to contribute to a campaign.<\/p>\n
Example 1:<\/em><\/p>\n
Dear Team, on the lookout for new ideas, we need your support!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Yet if he sends emails to individual departments and makes the connection to the respective team function (example 2), more replies will land in his inbox.<\/p>\n
Example 2:<\/em><\/p>\n
Dear Design Team, do you have any visual input for our new campaign?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Why is it like that?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
It’s simple: By employing a functional approach, he incorporates the individual teams into the creative process. He conveys that every opinion is important and all departments can contribute.<\/p>\n
And what does that have to do with an election?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
When it comes to an election, allocation of roles can motivate people during the greeting and in the text. Address voters as “Dear Voter”, for instance, and you form a direct connection between the person addressed and their function as a voter.<\/p>\n
Much like the team members from the aforementioned company, the recipients are told the following: “You are the person voting, and you have the cards in your hand. This is because you are part of the whole.”<\/p>\n
Using the role of the recipient while addressing them forms identity. And this is what will contribute to more voters making use of their right to vote.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/em>Picture source: Pixabay.com<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are several reasons why people decide not to partake in an election. One of the most frequent is, “It doesn’t make a difference anyway!” This is a short sentence with a large statement behind it. Because if you listen closer, at least part of this sentence is claiming, “I myself cannot change anything.” Getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","ub_ctt_via":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Wahlbeteiligung-steigern_1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Matthias Schubert","author_link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/m-schubert"},"yoast_head":"\n
10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation #1 The functional approach - POLYAS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This series "10 tips to increase voter participation" starts with a helpful tip for better voter-communication to increase voter turnout\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation #1 The functional approach - POLYAS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This series "10 tips to increase voter participation" starts with a helpful tip for better voter-communication to increase voter turnout\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"POLYAS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-22T10:26:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-07-28T10:16:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Wahlbeteiligung-steigern_1.jpg?fit=750%2C421&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"421\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthias Schubert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthias Schubert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach\",\"name\":\"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation #1 The functional approach - POLYAS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-22T10:26:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-07-28T10:16:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98104228cf095df07868c881c84b9a4a\"},\"description\":\"This series \\\"10 tips to increase voter participation\\\" starts with a helpful tip for better voter-communication to increase voter turnout\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"de-DE\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Startseite\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/de\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation #1 The functional approach\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"POLYAS\",\"description\":\"the blog for secure online voting\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"de-DE\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98104228cf095df07868c881c84b9a4a\",\"name\":\"Matthias Schubert\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de-DE\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ee26d952ed0c4fc696181da71daeeab5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ee26d952ed0c4fc696181da71daeeab5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Matthias Schubert\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/m-schubert\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation #1 The functional approach - POLYAS","description":"This series \"10 tips to increase voter participation\" starts with a helpful tip for better voter-communication to increase voter turnout","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach","og_locale":"de_DE","og_type":"article","og_title":"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation #1 The functional approach - POLYAS","og_description":"This series \"10 tips to increase voter participation\" starts with a helpful tip for better voter-communication to increase voter turnout","og_url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach","og_site_name":"POLYAS","article_published_time":"2015-05-22T10:26:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-07-28T10:16:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":421,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Wahlbeteiligung-steigern_1.jpg?fit=750%2C421&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matthias Schubert","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Verfasst von":"Matthias Schubert","Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit":"2 Minuten"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach","url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach","name":"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation #1 The functional approach - POLYAS","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-05-22T10:26:33+00:00","dateModified":"2015-07-28T10:16:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98104228cf095df07868c881c84b9a4a"},"description":"This series \"10 tips to increase voter participation\" starts with a helpful tip for better voter-communication to increase voter turnout","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"de-DE","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-1-the-functional-approach#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Startseite","item":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/de"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation #1 The functional approach"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/","name":"POLYAS","description":"the blog for secure online voting","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"de-DE"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98104228cf095df07868c881c84b9a4a","name":"Matthias Schubert","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de-DE","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ee26d952ed0c4fc696181da71daeeab5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ee26d952ed0c4fc696181da71daeeab5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Matthias Schubert"},"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/m-schubert"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Wahlbeteiligung-steigern_1.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72Pnr-51","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":352,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-3-create-a-sense-of-belonging","url_meta":{"origin":311,"position":0},"title":"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation: #3 Create a Sense of Belonging","date":"05\/06\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"During the Bundestag election in 2013 it became clear that the imbalance in voter participation is growing. According to the study \"Divided Democracy - Political Participation and Democratic Satisfaction before the Bundestag Election 2013\" from the Bertelsmann Stiftung, the election results were \"no longer socially representative\"[1]. It became apparent that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Voter-turnout"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Wahlbeteiligung_32.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":321,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-2-the-personal-approach","url_meta":{"origin":311,"position":1},"title":"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation #2: The Personal Approach","date":"29\/05\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Right after the Landtag election in Bremen the subject of decreasing voter participation was openly discussed once more. Less people continue to vote, partially because less people now believe that they can change anything. The key to voter participation is called motivation - belonging to something, being able to change\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Voter-turnout"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":563,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-9-motivate-young-voters","url_meta":{"origin":311,"position":2},"title":"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation: #9 Motivate Young Voters","date":"17\/07\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Considering the needs of modern voters - that was the subject of our fifth tip to increase voter participation. Naturally, a large number of these modern voters consist of the younger generation. This younger generation lives digitally to a far greater extent than the generation before: They communicate digitally, they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Voter-turnout"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/voter-turnout_9.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":631,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-10-election-reminders","url_meta":{"origin":311,"position":3},"title":"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation: #10 Election reminders","date":"27\/07\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Everything you do to motivate voters to cast their ballots is part of that big arena known as \"advertising\". To be precise, you, as the organiser of an election, are also an advertiser during this time. Advertising is an immensely diverse and heavily researched discipline. Through massive studies are conducted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Voter-turnout"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/voter-turnout_10.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":375,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/polyas\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-4-thank-you-for-taking-part","url_meta":{"origin":311,"position":4},"title":"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation #4: Thank you for taking part","date":"12\/06\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"There is no lack of ideas for increasing voter participation. Some of them however, such as massive motivation campaigns, generate incredible organisational expenses, require a lot of planning and cannot be implemented particularly quickly. Yet others follow the saying, \"Little cost, major effect.\" One of these measures that can affect\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "About POLYAS"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Wahlbeteiligung_4.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":449,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-6-start-polls","url_meta":{"origin":311,"position":5},"title":"10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation: #6 Start polls","date":"26\/06\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The voting period has already started and you want to get voters on board who haven't yet cast their ballots? But circular emails and letters too often end up in the (digital) wastebasket. One reason for this is that everything you are writing is mostly repetitive. The voters already know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Voter-turnout"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/voter-turnout_6.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":990,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions\/990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}