Editorial: Why did so many Kiwis fail to vote?

A drastically declining voter turnout in New Zealand must be of major concern to all political parties - particularly those that lost out, possibly as a direct result of so many people choosing not to bother voting in Saturday's general election.

A million Kiwis eligible to vote didn't. What might the results have been had they done so? We'll never know but it certainly looks like there needs to be some good research to come up with new strategies ahead of the next election.

It seems the television advertising campaigns and mailouts, even the direct urgings of candidates, didn't work. For whatever reason, 1 million Kiwis either didn't care about the election or - and we can only presume - didn't think their votes would count for much.

Voter turnout dropped by more than 90,000 between 2008 and this year's election.

There are various theories about why. Some, mainly those who won, of course, would say it shows people are happy with the status quo but others claim it shows the opposite.

Political scientist Dr Ray Miller says lopsided pre-election polls made it appear National was going to enjoy an easy victory.

They thought it was a foregone conclusion, so Labour voters and some National supporters didn't bother going to the polls.

Dr Miller says there is growing concern around the world about an ongoing decline in voting, especially by young adults.

Only 77 per cent - 337,000 out of 438,000 - of eligible New Zealanders aged 18 to 24 were enrolled by last Friday. It seems they think politics aren't relevant to them.

It's a shame they can't see that what happens at Parliament can have a big influence on them - now and well into their futures.

While Mana's Waiariki candidate Annette Sykes' idea to drop the voting age to 16 and make learning about politics and voting compulsory at school may be "stupid" in Rotorua MP Todd McClay's opinion, there is surely some merit to ensuring our children have a solid foundation of knowledge about voting and how their country is governed. Maybe if politics were a bigger part of the curriculum, from primary through to secondary school, future generations would grow up knowing the importance of voting.