Group hoping to prove “Apathy is Boring”
Posted Apr 13, 2011 12:08 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
As we start to get closer and closer to election day, one group hopes to prove to younger voters that apathy is truly boring.
Apathy is Boring is a non-partisan group that began over seven years ago in hopes of curbing the declining rate in young voters.
Co-founder Ilona Dougherty tells 660News, voter turn out of younger Canadians has steadily fallen over the last 40 years.
“So we’re looking at 37 per cent of young people now who get out and vote and in a couple of years we’ll be left with only 37 per cent of people who get out to the polls,” says Dougherty.
According to the group, that’s not the foundation of a healthy democracy and something needs to be done to reverse that trend.
If young people came out to vote, she says that would be an additional 800,000 votes or enough to fill four ridings.
The organization has taken to social-media in hopes of engaging, who they call the disengaged before Election Day.
“Politicians tend to target issues for voters who actually vote,” she says. “So it’s kind of one of those things that’s the chicken or the egg, the politicians don’t target youth and as a result youth don’t tend to vote.”
On their site, www.apathyisboring.com, they plan to post non-parisan information about the leaders and details on how to vote, to get them out to the polls.
They’re also answering questions on their Twitter and Facebook pages for anyone who might need a little help or more details.
“I think anyway that we can make the electoral process more accessible would definitely encourage more young people to get involved,” she says.
