Voting Trends in Local Elections

Consultation

The election trends survey has recently been carried out and looks at the reasons why people have or have not voted in local elections and what might encourage people to vote on a regular basis.

Background

The survey took place in February 2007 and was a postal survey issued to a total of 15,000 households in the borough: 5,000 were sent to non Neighbourhood Renewal Fund areas, 5,000 were sent to Neighbourhood Renewal Fund areas and 5,000 to the 3% most deprived Super Output Areas. The total number of responses was 2,523 giving a 17% rate of return.

Findings

Respondents were asked if they normally voted in local elections:

54.1% said they always voted
20.8% usually voted
7% never voted

Age appears to influence voting, those in the older age ranges being far more likely to vote than the young:

66.6% of 61 to 70 years olds said they always voted
while only 34.6% of 21 to 30 year olds stated that they always voted

Unemployed respondents were the least likely to vote:

31.7% of unemployed respondents said they always voted
opposed to 46.9% of those in full time employment

Respondents were asked if they did not vote in May 2006, why was this was. The highest responses were:

24% said they did not vote because there is no point - nothing will change
16% of people who did not vote said it was because there wasn't a candidate they wished to support
9% said they did not vote because they didn't recieve enough information from the candidates
opposed to 46.9% of those in full time employment
8% of people who did not vote said it was because they were too busy
7% said they did not vote because they felt important issues are not raised at local elections

When looking at responses to these issues in terms of gender the same two responses are the most popular reasons for not voting:

15.1% of male respondents and 15.6% of female respondents said they did not vote because there was no candidate to support
22.5% of male and 25.6% of female respondents felt there was no point because nothing would change.

Following the questions on reasons for not voting were a series of questions asking would respondents be prepared to vote given different circumstances. Voting by post was significantly more popular than any of the other options available (54.2% versus 32.2% “at a polling station of your choice” ):

54% said they would be prepared to vote by post
31% said they would be prepared to vote if they were provided with more information from the candidates
19% said they would be more prepared to vote if there was more publicity about local elections
32% preffered to vote at a polling station of their choice
27% of respondents would vote at a supermarket
25% of respondents would vote using the internet

The full report findings can be downloaded here, or for further details on this survey or for a copy of the orignial questionnaire, please contact the Community Affairs Unit using the contact details on the top right hand panel or tel: 01706 925605.

Voting Trends in Local Elections survey findings

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