The Non-Voter in Jersey

Today is the last day to register to vote. I know of several people who will not be registering, and here is a brief analysis of the types of non-voter that I have come across over the years.

The Intelligent Non-Voter

I spent an interesting time discussing the merits of voting with a chap from St Peter who told me he had no intention of voting, or for that matter, of registering to vote. His reasons (as far as I could understand them) were as follows:

Voting is not related - as in some countries - to life and death matters, as for instance in Zimbabwe, or other countries where politics is repressive and they have only just had the vote. Consequently, the differences in policy that different politicians may bring will be largely cosmetic, and there is not really that much that will effect him, if anything. Most of the major changes of importance - social security, public health - have been dealt with in the past, and what is left is more or less either "tinkering", or acting at the mercy of outside forces - like with the changes to our tax systems such as zero/ten etc forced upon us from outside pressure.

Obviously, if you are on the poverty line, you may see matters very differently, as I tried to put to him, but he thinks that whoever is in charge of a very rich island should be able to deal with poverty if they put their mind to it, but whoever takes over from them will probably be just as slow in doing anything about it, whatever their election promises.

The Uninterested Non-Voter

Related to that chap is the uninterested non-voter, typically, but not always, someone who is an immigrant to the Island, and who basically just "gets on with their life". What is going on at the political end, such as GST, impacts on them, but they just accept it as something that happens, and carry on making do as best they can. They may grumble occasionally about new taxes introduced, but it is just something to moan about from time to time, and that is that way things are, and they just live with it, and accept it. They don't have the time to get involved in following what goes on in politics, as their lives are busy enough, and anyway, there are more interesting things to do, and they don't understand it, or even want to understand it. Sometimes this is because of a language barrier, which is probably especially the case with the Portuguese population, and sometimes it is because they have come from England or Scotland ("the mainland"!) and it is an alien world to them.

The Misinformed and Missed Voter

I have come across one person who had been told - and taken on trust - that you had to be in the Island for five years before being able to vote, and wanted to vote. This presumably was a garbled version of the actual requirements, only one of which involves five years.

To be eligible to register to vote in Jersey you must be over 16 years old and have been either (A) ordinarily resident in Jersey for the period of at least 2 years or (B) ordinarily resident in Jersey for a period of at least 6 months prior to registration as well as having been ordinarily resident in Jersey at any time for (an) additional period(s) totalling at least 5 years.

He assumed that was the reason why he had not been sent an electoral role form, even though he has in fact been over here for at least 2 years. In the end, he went to the Parish Hall (St Brelade) and filled in a form there so that he can vote. In case Guy de Faye is thinking of standing for Senator - I would mention that he comes from Italy, so one vote lost there, Guy! Quite how the Parish slipped up on that one, I do not know, but it is alarming that firstly, he should be misinformed, and secondly, that he should not receive an electoral role form. How many more people may be excluded in this way?