Today@Dal

From the latest issue of Halifax Magazine:

As a political-science professor at Dalhousie with a son in his mid-20s, Louise Carbert knows a thing or two about kids these days and voting. She suspects the trend toward low voter turnout is caused by a cocktail of factors, including socio-economic status, life cycle trends and the increasing transience of young people.

Political participation tends to kick in around the $40,000 per year mark, she points out. Completing high school and university boosts your odds of voting, too. University and college students aged 18 to 24 are nine per cent more likely to vote than non-students in the same age group.

The life cycle effect also plays a role. “When we move through life, there’s a predictable pattern of growing up and getting old that affects political participation as well,” Carbert says.

Read the rest of this article online.