{"id":5057,"date":"2017-05-26T12:01:16","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T10:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?p=5057"},"modified":"2024-06-21T09:15:51","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T07:15:51","slug":"voter-education-registration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/voter-education-registration","title":{"rendered":"Participation: Voter Education &#038; Registration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A lack of voter education &amp; registration has led to widespread political apathy and low voter turnout. This has the impact of\u00a0undermining the trust in and legitimacy of our democracies. Democracies ultimately derive\u00a0their legitimacy from the participation of engaged citizens. Educating people about their voting rights and how to exercise them is therefore of great importance. In this edition of our blog series on voter participation, we take a look at voter education and registration.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Importance of Non-Partisan Voter Education <\/span><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">One thing that\u2019s crucial in providing voter education is that it remains non-partisan. State resources shouldn\u2019t be used to promote a particular party or ideology. This would indeed subvert the fundamentally democratic principle that citizens enjoy a degree of freedom to make their own choices. Therefore, voter education should provide a dispassionate, objective explanation of what people need to do in order to vote. This would include information about:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>The electoral system<\/strong> &#8211; how are representatives elected? Does the electoral system employ a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.com\/election-glossary\/first-past-the-post\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">first past the post system<\/a>, a preferential system, or perhaps some form of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.com\/election-glossary\/proportional-vote\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proportional representation<\/a>?<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>How to fill out ballots<\/strong> &#8211; fundamental to voters expressing their democratic choice correctly and avoiding mistakenly casting an invalid vote.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Voter registration<\/strong> &#8211; a key prerequisite to voting in many jurisdictions.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Voter Education &amp; Registration: Automatic Election Day Registration<\/span><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The final point above, voter registration, is in itself very important as it is often a requirement. Moreover, in countries such at the US and the UK, voters must register before a specific deadline in order to participate in most elections. Imagine turning up at the polling place on election day only to discover you cannot vote because you haven\u2019t registered. Or discovering you cannot register because you\u2019ve missed the deadline by a day or two!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">To mitigate this risk, some countries have looked to different voter registration procedures which make life easier for voters. In Sweden and France, for instance, eligible voters are automatically registered. Sweden uses tax registration lists to generate electoral rolls, whilst France\u2019s citizens are automatically registered once they turn 18. Moreover, in Canada, people can register to vote at the polling place on election day, instead of being told they cannot participate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">These measures should certainly be considered as means to boost voter participation. Next week we take a look at the impact of online voting on voter participation. Stay tuned!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lack of voter education &amp; registration has led to widespread political apathy and low voter turnout. This has the impact of\u00a0undermining the trust in and legitimacy of our democracies. Democracies ultimately derive\u00a0their legitimacy from the participation of engaged citizens. Educating people about their voting rights and how to exercise them is therefore of great [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":5081,"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":[1458,1464,1462,1460],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Voter-Registration.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Charles Harding","author_link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/c-harding"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Participation: The Importance of Voter Education &amp; Registration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Widespread political apathy &amp; low turnout undermine democracy. 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There are a number of countries around the world that require their citizens to show up at the polls on election day. In this installment of our blog series on voter participation, we discuss the arguments for and against compulsory voting.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Voter-turnout&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Online Voting Political Elections","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Voting-Age.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4939,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/lowering-voting-age","url_meta":{"origin":5057,"position":1},"title":"Voter Participation: The Case for Lowering the Voting Age","date":"03\/05\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Voter participation is the backbone of democracy. It gives leaders and governments the legitimacy they require in order to make policy decisions. On the flip side, when voters stay away from the polls, the foundation of democracy itself is eroded. In our next blog series, we cast our eye over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Voter-turnout&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Online Voting Political Elections","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Voting-Age.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5072,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/online-voting-political-elections","url_meta":{"origin":5057,"position":2},"title":"Voter Participation: Online Voting in Political Elections","date":"31\/05\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Voter participation and political engagement make up the lifeblood of our democracies. A general lack of participation can call into question the very legitimacy of our leaders and the decisions they make. Throughout this blog series on voter participation, we've looked at lowering the voting age, mandatory voting, as well\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Voter-turnout&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Online Voting Political Elections","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Voting-Age.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4983,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/digital-participation-advantages-disadvantages","url_meta":{"origin":5057,"position":3},"title":"Digital Participation &#8211; the Advantages and Disadvantages","date":"10\/05\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In the previous installments of this series, we have covered some of the different forms of digital participation. Today we will be assessing the overall benefits and drawbacks of participating in a digital world.\u00a0 The Advantages of Digital Participation The main goal of online democracy is the strengthened integration of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Digital Participation","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Digital-Participation.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4795,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/e-democracy-3","url_meta":{"origin":5057,"position":4},"title":"E-Democracy: Increased Participation and Transparency with Technology","date":"13\/04\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"E-Democracy is a form of digital participation that's popping up more regularly these days. As a buzzword it's being thrown around in politics and on social media alike and has more than a few people rubbing their hands in anticipation. In the first part of our new series on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4001,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy","url_meta":{"origin":5057,"position":5},"title":"Digital Democracy in the UK","date":"07\/02\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In 2015 the speaker's commission published a report \"Open Up!\" recommending a series of changes and policy recommendations to keep parliament up to date in today's digital world. Some of the changes were radical, some were less so and most of them made sense. The report gives us a fantastic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Digital Democracy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ballot.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5057"}],"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\/274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5057"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12107,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5057\/revisions\/12107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}