Voter turnout underwhelming despite excitement

It was one of the most exciting election battles in years but the actual voter turnout was underwhelming, leaving one political scientist to ask if New Zealanders are turning into political couch potatoes.

The Electoral Office estimated the turnout to be 80 percent of people enrolled - about 215,000 or 3 percentage points more than in the 2002 election. But that election turnout was the lowest in 100 years.

"It is surprisingly low particularly because it is widely thought that a competitive election will pull people back (to vote)," Canterbury University political scientist Bronwyn Hayward told NZPA today.

"All around the world we're experiencing this falling turnout, with people turning off politics. But with a competitive election, they're supposed to come out and what is really worrying is that you don't get any more competitive than this."

Dr Hayward, who recently returned from Washington DC where she studied what motivates Americans to vote, said there were some great initiatives from the Electoral Office and Electoral Commission to grab voter attention this year.

These included advertisements on entertainment pages reminding people to vote and small planes carrying signs over large cities.

"Are we turning into a nation of political couch potatoes? Yes is the short answer -- and it's not actually healthy," she said.

But Electoral Commission chief executive Helena Catt said 9 percent more enrolled voters voted in Saturday's election compared with 2002 and that showed a reverse in voting trends.

"Most western democracies have seen a steady decline, so just the fact we've turned it around and it hasn't continued to decline is good," she said.

"And our (voting) levels are higher than in many other western democracies as well, which is also good...

"There will be a lot of people who haven't voted before and we know from academic research that voting becomes habit-forming. So once a whole lot of people vote for the first time they are more likely to vote again at the next election, so there is a chance of turning it around."

Dr Hayward said young people, lower socio-economic communities and some minorities were voting less than others. The group least likely to vote were young Pacific women and young people were switching off elections in droves.

"It will take a while until we see if there has been any impact from the Labour campaign to target student loans on youth voting -- some of the higher number of special votes this year (over 200,000) may represent students deciding to have a say on student fee issues," she said.

Electoral Commission studies showed New Zealand had about the eighth highest rate in the world for decline of voter turnout among 18-24 years olds.

Dr Hayward said negative campaigning and media reporting made voters more cynical and less likely to vote.

But political parties showed signs of thinking smarter about targeting potential voters this campaign: such as Labour targeting state house tenants, texting and street corner meetings by Labour and Jim Anderton's Progressives, extensive blogging by the Greens and Act, and uses of churches by National and United Future.

- NZPA