2 weeks Ago
Low-turnout at local elections in one part of Kent has prompted debate as to whether forcing people to the polls is the answer. Three recent by-elections cost Medway Council £60,457 to run which, with a turnout of just 20% on the day, amounted to a cost of £14.30 per vote.
In total, only 4,225 people exercised their right to vote for three seats out of 21,065 eligible voters. Residents in Rochester East and Warren Wood, and Gillingham South went to the polls on February 6 after three Labour councillors resigned their seats after being elected to parliament in July’s general election. If all eligible voters had taken part in the by-elections, the cost per vote would have reduced from £14.
30 per vote to just £2.87 per vote. And if just half of people on the electoral roll voted the cost of per vote would fall to £5.
74. Despite using a smaller team of staff than would be used at a general election or Medway-wide council election, the by-elections required 58 members of staff at 13 polling stations and Medway Park for the count. Printing of ballots for the vote alone cost £2,710.
05 and the fees for the polling places and the count, including staff, cost £23,000. At the by-elections, Labour retained the seat in Gillingham South, but lost two seats in the Rochester East and Warren Wood to Reform UK. Cllrs Liubov Nestorova (Lab), John Vye (Ref) and David Finch (Ref) were elected, but the turnout for Gillingham South was just 16.
4% and 24.4% for Rochester East and Warren Wood. At the last set of local elections for Medway Council in May 2023, only 28.
5% of registered voters in Medway cast their ballot. That’s just 57,116 votes out of a possible 200,407. At the general election turnouts were better, with each of the three Medway constituencies having turnouts of greater than 50%.
Of Rochester and Strood’s 74,257 possible voters, 42,598 went to the polls (57.4%), of Chatham and Aylesford’s 75,109, 40,845 cast a vote (54.4%), and of a possible 73,523 voters in Gillingham and Rainham, 41,140 turned out (55.
9%). Medway is not alone in seeing a much lower turnout for local elections than general elections - and residents in other parts of Kent are set to go to the polls for upcoming Kent County Council elections - but why is it the case? Local authorities like Medway Council provide many more services which residents interact with on a regular basis, surely people should be more invested in who is running them? The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) spoke to some Medway residents to see if they vote, why not if they didn’t, and whether compulsory voting rules, such as those in Australia, should be brought to the UK. Sally Davies, 74, who had recently moved to the Towns said she wasn’t sure about making voting compulsory but believes in making people aware of the importance.
She said: “Maybe not for a local election, but I think people should be a lot more aware that it's so important to vote. “I think younger people are more empowered now and wanting to vote. I know some places it is compulsory.
I can't imagine it coming in here at present. “But I think people should get to know their councillors. I think the councillors should want to meet people, talk to people, not just through a letterbox, but to actually speak to them in person.
“Where I used to live, we knew the councillors, so I really wanted to vote for them, I believed in them and I wanted to support them.” Aman Pal, 19, thinks compulsory voting might force politicians to be more representative of the public, but didn’t feel confident about voting himself due to a perceived lack of knowledge on the subject. He said: “No, to be honest, I wouldn't vote because I'm not as aware of the information I need to be aware of and I feel like I'm only 19 so I don't feel like I know a lot, as I should, to be honest.
“I would support compulsory voting because I feel like then the result becomes a bit more fair when more people vote.” Nina Darbey, 46, and her mother Elizabeth Jayes, 67, said they didn’t agree with any financial penalties for not voting. They both said if councillors were more responsive to constituent’s needs turnout might be better.
Nina said: “I'm not sure about [voting] being compulsory, purely because I feel like they don't do everything they should be doing. “I've been to them before and had a meeting with them to help out, and they've not been able to help me. “So why should you vote for them if they don't even consider your circumstances?” Elizabeth added: “I don't think there should be compulsory voting.
People should be able to do what people want. “I think the reason people don't vote is because they think politicians make all these promises, and no-one holds them up.” Charlie Bennett, 41, who lives in Rochester said he would vote if he felt there was something worth voting for, but he didn’t have faith in the main parties.
He added: “I would, but the problem is the three parties that we have are all terrible. “We have Labour, who are a bunch of liars [..
.]. Putting VAT on school fees is ridiculous.
“Then we have Reform, which scare me, and the Tories, who are useless. Then you've got the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, who are a nice idea, but are they going to get into power? No. “So, it's one fool or another fool, that’s the problem with voting at the moment.
“I think making it compulsory is a two-edged sword. The problem with that is, I'm lucky I work from home but if you work in the NHS or whatever else, when do they get the time to do the voting? And do they get penalised if they don't? “So, I like the idea of everyone having a voice, but trying to make everyone find the time to do it would be quite difficult.” Leader of the Medway Tories, Cllr George Perfect, says everyone in politics wants to see greater participation.
He added: “Historically, local by-elections have fairly low levels of turnout, which is disappointing, and of course we want to see as much civic engagement as possible. Everybody involved in politics wants to see that, that's why I get up in the morning. “I think in terms of increasing voter turnout we can do more around the marketing and information that is given to residents, which I think will benefit from that.
“There are merits for compulsory voting, and there are things that are concerning. “I'm not sure at the moment that's really the route we should be going down. But I do think there is a wider conversation about increasing voter turnout, which should be had.
” Council leader Vince Maple (Lab) says the authority runs its elections as efficiently as it can. He said: “We always want to do everything at Medway Council as efficiently as possible. “We actually have a fantastic elections team here who do things as efficiently as possible.
“Certainly as regards the process, both of the count, but also the days and weeks running up to actually election day, the team here do a tremendous job.”.
