Dear Editor:
There has been much said about the deplorably low turnout in recent provincial elections.
The chief electoral officer has done much to make it easy to vote, apparently without significant effect as the turnout is still dropping.
The message I get from Elections Canada is that if people vote when they are young they continue to vote throughout their lives.
I suggest, therefore, to increase voter turnout the voting age should be lowered from 18 to 17 so that all Grade 12 students will be able to vote meaningfully. Each school should then have a polling station in order to make it easy for the students to vote.
A few schools now have an all-candidates meeting before an election. If all Grade 12 students could vote it is likely that all secondary schools would hold all-candidates meetings.
Students would then feel more engaged and be more likely to vote as they would know they could influence the results. And the expectation is that they would continue to vote in future elections.
David Huntley, Burnaby
