Teaching the voting habit

New Zealand must begin training its children to vote if it is to turn around declining numbers at the polling booth, and it must act now, Electoral Commission chief executive Dr Helena Catt said yesterday.

Dr Catt said the task of teaching citizenship had become urgent.

"Voting is really habit forming. The majority of people who don't vote the first time will not vote," she said.

"Each election when a lot of people gain that habit is another cohort lost. The sooner we get in there and do it, the sooner that will turn around."

This month's election had a slightly improved voter turnout on 2002 - up three percentage points to 80 per cent - but that was after one of the keenest contests in years. The 2002 turnout was the lowest in 100 years.

Many countries taught citizenship, Dr Catt said."I think the UK version is the best one. They say there are three things you need."

The first was political literacy, so people knew how the government and the elections worked. The second part was understanding why we value democracy and the other principles that underpinned the system; and finally, encouraging people to get actively involved - perhaps initially on a school council.

"The evidence is that these three things together create adults who go on to be active citizens," Dr Catt said.

- NZPA