By Kendall Robertson

Attracting Young Voters To The Polls

Sep 20, 2018 | 4:16 PM

PRINCE GEORGE- The municipal election is officially one month away and candidates are reaching out into the community to spread their platforms. The majority of voters remain those over the age of 55, according to turnout results from previous elections. While the number of young voters is rising, UNBC political science professor Jason Morris says many young people feel their participation in rallies, interest groups, and engagement on social media is just the same as voting. “Even liking or following a politicians page, to them, counts as civic participation as much if not more than joining a political party or voting,” said Morris. He suggests it’s time to introduce online voting, which may draw more young people to the polls. “It’s about time we seriously get into online voting, people spend tens of thousands of dollars on luxury cars on eBay,” added Morris, “it’s certainly a convenient way to vote and surely the privacy concerns can be taken care of.”

There are two candidates that fit into the younger demographic that are running for council this year. Kyle Sampson and Cori Ramsay say it’s important that all ages are represented on council. “A council needs to reflect the entire makeup of our community,” said Sampson, “all people should do their research and look up the candidates and find the candidates that represent their values and their opinions.” Most of the candidates for city council and school board can be found on social media, a tool that nearly everyone is already utilizing. “I’ve been getting several Facebook messages, people are shooting me questions, things they want fixed,” said Ramsay, “you can go to our websites and the city council election information you can see links to all the candidates there.”