With the lack of turnout from young adults in the last civic election, YEGNation, a group of men, is trying to inform and educate young people on the importance of voting on October 16.
YEGnation says there was a lacklustre turnout in the 2013 civic election with 34.5% of eligible voters voting, only a percent higher than the 2010 civic election. So the group decided to try and increase those statistic by making videos interviewing city council candidates and posting them to YouTube. They believe it’s the easiest way for young people to gather information on who they might vote for.
Austen Knopp, from YEGnation, admits that even he himself didn’t vote in the last election and says through his own research he has discovered that if you don’t vote when you are first eligible, there is a good chance you may never vote.
Haroon Ahmed, one of the volunteers for YEGnation knows how important social media is in getting their message out.
“This is it, this is how we get people involved, young people they want to go on the internet and find information real quick, real easy and there was no website that was giving interviews so we could get to know the candidates,” Ahmed said.
Running in Ward 2, incumbent councillor, Bev Esslinger says she recognizes the importance of the young adult voters.
“We’re one of the youngest cities in Canada, so we know we have a lot of young adults, we know they have a voice,” Esslinger says.
Advanced voting takes place from Oct. 4 – 13. Election day is Monday, Oct. 17.
