VOTE CAMPAIGN:Voter turnout in poorer areas is the lowest in the State, but activists are trying to tackle practical obstacles
SISTER BERNADETTE MacMahon’s office in the attic of Ozanam House on Mountjoy Square could be mistaken for one of the “war rooms” used by political parties to plan their election campaigns.
Posters urging people to vote are piled high on the table and there are stacks of leaflets and campaign literature all over the place. But the “Vote . . . it’s your voice” campaign, which is run by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice, is not about electing one candidate or even a party, it simply aims to persuade people from disadvantaged communities to use their vote.
“This is a very important election for people because of all the cutbacks that are taking place. We will never have a just society until every voice is heard,” says MacMahon, who has worked to increase voter registration and turnout since 1996.
Just over two million people voted in the 2007 election, which amounts to 67 per cent of all people registered to vote. But there were big variations in turnout across the country, with poor inner city electoral divisions showing the lowest voter participation.
One in three registered voters didn’t bother casting a ballot in the Mountjoy B electoral division in Dublin, where MacMahon’s office is based. The Custom House electoral district in inner city Limerick recorded the lowest turnout at 29.1 per cent.
“People from disadvantaged areas often say they don’t vote because of broken promises by politicians,” says MacMahon. “Sometimes they don’t understand you need to get on the electoral register or don’t know how to fill in a ballot. Some people are intimidated about going into a polling station and illiteracy is an issue,” she says.
Her campaign team is holding workshops all over the country aimed at training community activists to encourage people in poor communities to vote. The workshops were inspired by voter registration campaigns in the US in the early 1990s.
They employ educational techniques developed by Brazilian educator and social justice campaigner Paulo Freire, which he used to vastly improve turnout in poor areas.
“Our programme is 85 per cent participative and 15 per cent informative,” says MacMahon. “We enable groups of voters to participate in discussions on the key issues that affect them and types of questions they should ask candidates,” she says.
The campaign is strictly non-party political, although it emphasises the importance of voters analysing the campaign promises of candidates and comparing them to their own interests. It also seeks to demystify the voting process for people who may have low education levels, poor literacy and be intimated about entering a polling station.
Carmel Cooney, who works at a childcare centre in Mountjoy Square, says the Vincentian programme was really useful because it helped her to get registered.
“I moved house eight years ago and fell off the register. But this programme brought a garda round to the centre to sign registration forms for me. I was also a bit nervous about voting and didn’t really know how to go about it,” she says.
Cooney says her family have been badly hit by the cutbacks introduced during the recession. Her son is unemployed and has had his benefit cut. Her own pay has been reduced and she has also lost her right to a medical card.
“I’m going to vote, although I don’t know who for yet . . . I think if you don’t vote you lose,” she says.
Academics say it is difficult to ascertain just how much potential influence people living in socially deprived areas lose with politicians because of low turnout.
Dr Adrian Kavanagh in the geography department at NUI Maynooth says there is a link between low turnout and social class but other factors also play a significant role.
“There are big urban and rural differences in turnout. More people tend to vote in rural constituencies. There is less residential mobility in rural areas as more people own their own homes rather than living in flats and apartments. Voter mobility is an important reason why there are very low turnouts in parts of Dublin,” he says.
He says the high turnout in rural areas – Dolla in North Tipperary had the highest turnout in the country at 94.3 per cent in 2007 – is one reason why farmers retain significant political clout. He also notes young people and the unemployed are two groups who do not vote in big numbers and do not have a lot of political influence.
The success of NGOs lobbying on behalf of older people, including the safeguarding of the State pension and the Government’s U-turn on the withdrawal of entitlements to medical cards for all those over 70 years old, show voting in large numbers matters.
“Some 86.3 per cent of people aged 65 and over voted in the 2002 election [the last one for which figures are available], compared to 74 per cent of the 18-64 age range,” says Patricia Conboy, executive director of the campaign group Older and Bolder.
She says the key to their campaigning success has been the lobbying of TDs undertaken by older people .This is continuing in this election campaign, she says.
Back at the “Vote . . . it’s your voice” campaign headquarters, MacMahon has no doubt that voting is the only way for people in disadvantaged areas to have their voice heard.
“One campaign leaflet that was very successful simply asked why Castleknock was a clean place to live, had very little litter, had creches and other services while Mulhuddart doesn’t? The answer was that people voted in Castleknock,” she says.
Low turnout: General Election ’07
Custom House electoral district, Limerick 29.1%
Ballymun (D district), Dublin 30%
Rotunda (B district), Dublin 30.9%
North City district, Dublin 33.3%
Mountjoy (B district),
Dublin 33.9%
Source: This data is based on an analysis of all marked registers for the 2007 General Election by Dr Adrian Kavanagh, Department of Geography, NUI Maynooth.
The research is part of a joint project involving Prof Richard Sinnott and the Geary Institute, UCD. (This is also the source for the map.)