By Emma Shaw
Now that the dust has started to settle after the recent elections and we’ve ended up with the
same dysfunctional DUP/SF partnership, we need to address the elephant in the room – low
voter turnout.
Turnout varied depending on constituency, with the largest turnouts in Mid Ulster (69.54%),
Fermanagh and South Tyrone (69.09%) followed by Newry and Armagh (68.49%). These
constituencies elected 9 SF, 3 DUP, 2 SDLP and 1 UUP MLA’s. The lowest turnout was in the
constituencies of Strangford (58.42%), South Antrim (60.03%) and North Down (60.13%). These
constituencies elected 6 DUP, 5 AP, 3 UUP and 1 SF MLA’s.
There has been much discussion about rise in seat numbers or ‘swell’ in some areas but
personally I’m disappointed with the turnout. The overall turnout for the election was 63.61%,
a total of 873,787 meaning that 499,944 people decided not to vote. I should note here that
according to the electoral office, there were 11,087 invalid ballots, meaning these folks turned
up to vote but for various reasons their ballots couldn’t be counted. These last two numbers are
the ones I’m curious about – why do people decide not to vote? Anecdotally I’ve heard
different reasons such as ‘my vote doesn’t count’, or ‘there isn’t a party on the ballot that
represents me’. There have also been reports on social media from people who were turned
away from voting for not having appropriate identification. This is the conversation, in my
opinion, that we need to be having to figure out what the reasons are.
Education on how to vote in the STV elections are important but we also need to better
understand a few issues, for example, of the spoiled ballots, were they purposefully spoiled or
accidental? Is there a difference between spoiled ballots that are received by mail and those in
person? These invalid ballots seem to be people who are still engaged in the process of
elections meaning they show up to vote. What can we do to encourage the other 499,944
people who did not cast a vote to vote and have their voices heard?
Without the data it’s a bit like feeling around in the dark for the light switch without having been in the room.
So many people feel disengaged with the political process and this isn’t unique to Northern
Ireland. Personally, as a woman, I feel an obligation to vote for those who came before me and
didn’t have that same opportunity. If you don’t vote, or don’t think voting matters, I’d like to
hear from you in the comment below. This isn’t about judging or blaming people, I’m genuinely
curious about what you think and the reasons you choose not to vote – what could politicians
or their parties do better or different to encourage you to vote?
There will always be an element of people who have forgotten, don’t have time, had an
emergency and other issues but I would like to see Northern Ireland turnout grow to at least
70%. What do you think we need to do to get there?
