Engagement of all citizens in elections is crucial to ensure democratic development of our societies. Promoting youth electoral participation is a key task for any democratic country. It is sometimes argued that the first election leaves a footprint on the voters behaviour, influencing their habits in future elections[1].
Youth voter turnout within many countries has been decreasing. Remaining politically motivated, young people have low levels of trust and belief in formal representative democracy organisations, often preferring to express their political convictions through alternative forms of participation such as volunteering and activism.
Why does this happen? How to raise awareness among young people about electoral processes? How to encourage them to participate in elections?
We are going to discuss these and alike questions on 28 September during the online talk “Young Voters: Democracy Rebooted” with:
- Claudia Luciani, Director, Directorate of Human Dignity, Equality and Governance, Directorate General of Democracy, Council of Europe
- Antje Rothemund, Head of Youth Department, Directorate General of Democracy, Council of Europe
- David Clark, Head of Education and Engagement of the House of Commons, UK
- Tamar Zhvania, Chair of the Central Election Commission of Georgia
- Roman Banari, General Secretary of the National Youth Council in Moldova
- Dan Moxon, Council of Europe expert, UK, “People, Dialogue and Change”
- Corina Pirvulescu, Council of Europe expert, “People, Dialogue and Change”
- Alice Bergholtz, Co-ordinator of the priority focus group on youth work and youth participation, Advisory Council on Youth (CCJ)
The online talk will be moderated by Gennadiy Kosyak, Deputy Head of Elections and Civil Society Division (DG Democracy), Council of Europe.
During the online talk, a new Council of Europe Toolkit “Vote Outside The Box” will be presented. The Toolkit has been commissioned by the Council of Europe’s Division of Elections and Civil Society (DG Democracy) to support election management bodies and other national stakeholders in the Council of Europe member States in their efforts to develop strategic approaches and to raise awareness about electoral processes amongst young people, particularly, as potential first-time voters. This Toolkit may also be relevant to other national authorities such as ministries and agencies responsible for youth policy development and implementation, as well as other state and non-state actors.
Registration to join the discussion (28 September at 14:00 CET (GMT+2) /15:00 EEST (GMT+3), click here
[1] Aldrich J. H. et al. (2011) “Turnout as a habit”, Political Behaviour 33(4), pp. 535–63 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-010-9148-3
