Dear Editor,
Now that the election is over, we can take a step back and look on some of the most glaring issues. Voter turnout will be close to the top of that list. It is generally assumed that low voter turnout in an election favours the incumbent. If this is held true, the People’s National Party would have remained in Government. But, this was not the case.
The idea of voter turnout predicting elections is not a perfect science and has been wrong before. But was voter turnout for this election really as low as stated? Voter turnout is calculated in two ways: valid vote turnout and ballot box turnout. A valid vote turnout takes into account all the ballots cast, but excludes all spoiled ballots. On the other hand, the ballot box turnout accounts for everyone who cast a vote — regardless of the status of their ballot.
Why is this important? Well, since the voter turnout numbers point to only a 47 per cent turnout (lowest in history), it would be great to know how it was calculated. Let’s assume that ballot box turnout method was used, could we safely assume that 47 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote? No. This assumption can only be made if the electoral list is 100 per cent correct. There have been numerous reports of the deceased still being included on the electoral list. If this is a widespread issue, then there is a problem. The last time I checked, the dead cannot turn out to vote. Therefore, this would undoubtedly affect the final voter turnout percentage.
There is no debate on whether or not we had low voter turnout for our election; however, I believe there is more work to be done with calculating the actual numbers. It’s easier to say that people were disgruntled and didn’t come out to vote, or people live in a particular area where their vote would not matter and so they didn’t turn out to vote. These may all be valid reasons; however, let’s ensure that we have an accurate percentage for voter turnout before we start making excuses for the ‘poor’ turnout.
Theon O’Connor
mrcampion10@gmail.com
Now that the election is over, we can take a step back and look on some of the most glaring issues. Voter turnout will be close to the top of that list. It is generally assumed that low voter turnout in an election favours the incumbent. If this is held true, the People’s National Party would have remained in Government. But, this was not the case.
The idea of voter turnout predicting elections is not a perfect science and has been wrong before. But was voter turnout for this election really as low as stated? Voter turnout is calculated in two ways: valid vote turnout and ballot box turnout. A valid vote turnout takes into account all the ballots cast, but excludes all spoiled ballots. On the other hand, the ballot box turnout accounts for everyone who cast a vote — regardless of the status of their ballot.
Why is this important? Well, since the voter turnout numbers point to only a 47 per cent turnout (lowest in history), it would be great to know how it was calculated. Let’s assume that ballot box turnout method was used, could we safely assume that 47 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote? No. This assumption can only be made if the electoral list is 100 per cent correct. There have been numerous reports of the deceased still being included on the electoral list. If this is a widespread issue, then there is a problem. The last time I checked, the dead cannot turn out to vote. Therefore, this would undoubtedly affect the final voter turnout percentage.
There is no debate on whether or not we had low voter turnout for our election; however, I believe there is more work to be done with calculating the actual numbers. It’s easier to say that people were disgruntled and didn’t come out to vote, or people live in a particular area where their vote would not matter and so they didn’t turn out to vote. These may all be valid reasons; however, let’s ensure that we have an accurate percentage for voter turnout before we start making excuses for the ‘poor’ turnout.
Theon O’Connor
mrcampion10@gmail.com