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Amid their final whimpers of this weirdo election campaign, Ontario’s parties spent some of Wednesday urging their supporters to make specific plans to vote.
“Do you know when you’ll be voting?” an emailed blast from the Progressive Conservative campaign asked. “In the morning before work? On a break? After work? Will you be driving there? Bringing friends or family? You need to have answers to these questions.”
“If you haven’t voted yet, make a plan to vote as soon as you can,” the New Democrats implored.
Research from the United States shows that asking supporters to think through in advance how they’ll cast ballots has a significant effect on whether people turn themselves into voters. Lots of people vaguely intend to vote but don’t quite get around to it — like going to the gym — but if a campaign can get its supporters to mentally schedule a trip to the polls and start visualizing it, that changes their behaviour.
Harvard scholars tested this in a massive experiment in 2008, when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were competing for the Democratic Party nomination for president. They got each campaign to use pre-set scripts in the phone calls they made to supporters in Pennsylvania, more than 200,000 of them. Asking voters to make plans to vote in the party primary, instead of just reminding them they ought to vote, increased turnout rates by as much as nine per cent. It makes them think through logistical problems in advance, find their voter-ID cards, and so on.
(The effect in the Harvard study was most pronounced for single people, negligible among couples. “Eligible voters who live together may be more likely to organically make voting plans than those who live alone,” the researchers suggested, because they’re used to co-ordinating schedules anyway.)
What else works? Getting people to think of themselves as voters, so that voting diligently is a small part of who you are rather than just something you sometimes do. Voters vote.
Columnists who lament low turnout rates do not help, apparently. Humans like to do what a lot of other humans are doing. If we figure lots of people are voting, we don’t want to be left out; if we figure lots of people won’t bother, we decide sullen detachment is the cool way to be.
Hey, did you know that Elections Ontario reported a huge upswing in advance voting this year? Even though they reduced the number of polling stations? An estimated 768,895 people voted during the days of early voting at the end of May, an increase of nearly 19 per cent from the last election in 2014. And overall turnout in 2014 was up from the previous election in 2011.
Eastern Ontario had some of the biggest turnouts in advance polls, too. Kingston-and-the-Islands topped Ontario’s 124 ridings; Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke and Orléans were third and fourth. Seems like lots of people are voting.
Even if the choices are not as inspiring as we might like.
The Progressive Conservatives, the party of grownups, haven’t put together a financial plan, and are running a startling number of candidates facing police and professional investigations. The leader’s sister-in-law is suing him for millions, accusing him of looting his late brother’s estate.
The New Democrats, unexpectedly competitive, did put together a financial plan but erred in the math to the tune of $1.4 billion a year. Their candidate roster includes ideologues, weirdos and malcontents.
The Liberals are the Liberals. They’ve piled up an Everest of baggage in 15 years — consequences of bad decisions and cowardice, glossed with the arrogance that power eventually brings. Even if you like them, their leader Kathleen Wynne threw the race last weekend.
The Greens are the usual mixed bag. They’re dead smart about environmental issues (every other party should steal from them) but go a bit goofy when they leave that comfort zone. Their goal this campaign is to get their leader Mike Schreiner elected in Guelph, which kind of left other candidates dangling before the election was even called.
Maybe you feel like you’re having to choose the lesser of evils. Doesn’t matter. Some combination of these people are still going to be Ontario’s government after the votes are counted. Choosing the less-evil people is really important.
Vote because you’re hopeful, vote because you’re sad, vote with your nose held, vote because you’re mad. However, whenever (as long as it’s before 9 p.m. Thursday night), for whomever. But vote. Figure out how you’re going to do it, then go do what voters like you do.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
“Do you know when you’ll be voting?” an emailed blast from the Progressive Conservative campaign asked. “In the morning before work? On a break? After work? Will you be driving there? Bringing friends or family? You need to have answers to these questions.”
“If you haven’t voted yet, make a plan to vote as soon as you can,” the New Democrats implored.
Research from the United States shows that asking supporters to think through in advance how they’ll cast ballots has a significant effect on whether people turn themselves into voters. Lots of people vaguely intend to vote but don’t quite get around to it — like going to the gym — but if a campaign can get its supporters to mentally schedule a trip to the polls and start visualizing it, that changes their behaviour.
Harvard scholars tested this in a massive experiment in 2008, when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were competing for the Democratic Party nomination for president. They got each campaign to use pre-set scripts in the phone calls they made to supporters in Pennsylvania, more than 200,000 of them. Asking voters to make plans to vote in the party primary, instead of just reminding them they ought to vote, increased turnout rates by as much as nine per cent. It makes them think through logistical problems in advance, find their voter-ID cards, and so on.
(The effect in the Harvard study was most pronounced for single people, negligible among couples. “Eligible voters who live together may be more likely to organically make voting plans than those who live alone,” the researchers suggested, because they’re used to co-ordinating schedules anyway.)
What else works? Getting people to think of themselves as voters, so that voting diligently is a small part of who you are rather than just something you sometimes do. Voters vote.
Columnists who lament low turnout rates do not help, apparently. Humans like to do what a lot of other humans are doing. If we figure lots of people are voting, we don’t want to be left out; if we figure lots of people won’t bother, we decide sullen detachment is the cool way to be.
Hey, did you know that Elections Ontario reported a huge upswing in advance voting this year? Even though they reduced the number of polling stations? An estimated 768,895 people voted during the days of early voting at the end of May, an increase of nearly 19 per cent from the last election in 2014. And overall turnout in 2014 was up from the previous election in 2011.
Eastern Ontario had some of the biggest turnouts in advance polls, too. Kingston-and-the-Islands topped Ontario’s 124 ridings; Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke and Orléans were third and fourth. Seems like lots of people are voting.
Even if the choices are not as inspiring as we might like.
The Progressive Conservatives, the party of grownups, haven’t put together a financial plan, and are running a startling number of candidates facing police and professional investigations. The leader’s sister-in-law is suing him for millions, accusing him of looting his late brother’s estate.
The New Democrats, unexpectedly competitive, did put together a financial plan but erred in the math to the tune of $1.4 billion a year. Their candidate roster includes ideologues, weirdos and malcontents.
The Liberals are the Liberals. They’ve piled up an Everest of baggage in 15 years — consequences of bad decisions and cowardice, glossed with the arrogance that power eventually brings. Even if you like them, their leader Kathleen Wynne threw the race last weekend.
The Greens are the usual mixed bag. They’re dead smart about environmental issues (every other party should steal from them) but go a bit goofy when they leave that comfort zone. Their goal this campaign is to get their leader Mike Schreiner elected in Guelph, which kind of left other candidates dangling before the election was even called.
Maybe you feel like you’re having to choose the lesser of evils. Doesn’t matter. Some combination of these people are still going to be Ontario’s government after the votes are counted. Choosing the less-evil people is really important.
Vote because you’re hopeful, vote because you’re sad, vote with your nose held, vote because you’re mad. However, whenever (as long as it’s before 9 p.m. Thursday night), for whomever. But vote. Figure out how you’re going to do it, then go do what voters like you do.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
