Younger voters showed up in higher numbers both in front of and behind the polling stations in Canada’s 45th federal election, according to finance co-ordinator Viswajit Kumar, something that surprised him. “We had quite a high turnout of youth [poll workers] this time, and I think for the advanced poll it was 50/50 or greater skewed towards the youth,” he said.
Elections Canada hired nearly 230,000 people to work on advance poll days and election day. The positions ranged from deputy returning officers and information officers to registration officers and central poll supervisors, and the minimum age requirement for working at the polls is 16.
“…Working at the elections before I am able to vote change[d] my perspective because [I got] to see how everything works behind the scenes before [I went out] to vote in the future, “said 17-year-old Jerome Chan. The twelfth-grade student from Markham, Ont., worked as a registration officer on election day and noted that it was a unique experience to go from watching the votes trickle in on live television as a child to counting votes himself.
“I understand the phrase ‘every vote counts’ [more now],” said Sierra Finkelshtain, marketing and administration coordinator at Wax Records Inc., who worked as a registration officer for the federal election. “People were mostly voting Liberal or Conservative, and it was really interesting to see that at some points [when we were counting] they would tie and only a few votes would make that party win in that specific ballot box.”
Kumar says he was impressed by the strong work ethic and attention to detail he witnessed from the young poll workers.
“Younger people were being very methodical and procedural because they were following the booklet to the letter, and if there was any discrepancy at any stage, they would immediately question it,” he said.
Elections Canada acknowledged the importance of hiring young people for polls in an email statement. “Hiring youth to work on either advance or ordinary polling days can indeed contribute to engaging them in civic engagement. It’s a great way to experience Canadian democracy firsthand.”
Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto, agrees.
“If people become more familiar with voting, they’re more likely to vote themselves later and they may also later do a similar job and work for Elections Canada.”
Chan is certain that he will vote when he turns 18 and said he would definitely work for the elections system again.
For Finkelshtain, this experience was a reminder of how easy it is to get involved in politics.
“Knowing that anybody could be a part of the democratic process in their area [was interesting to see],” she said.
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