City council elections, 1 May
From:
Chris Brewer
Date:
May 03 13:01 UTC
Short link
In response to Tony Joyce’s request for ideas about increasing involvement,
here’s a thought. In February of this year the citizens of Hamburg voted in
their local elections. A comparison with Oxford is admittedly of limited use,
Hamburg is a much larger city and the Hamburg government has much greater
powers than Oxford City Council. But one thing they did do was actively
encourage people to vote, by running a campaign called ‘Wirf deine Stimme nicht
Weg’ which (I am told) means ‘Don’t throw your vote away’. The campaign was
supported by an impressive web site. There was even a video of the HSV football
team singing a cheerful tune encouraging people to vote.
I would concede there is maybe a cultural difference here – it does take an
effort of the imagination to imagine Darren Patterson and his Oxford United
team singing ‘Don’t throw your vote away’, possibly to the tune of The
Searchers’ ‘Don’t throw your love away’. But it is an appealing thought.
The contrast between Hamburg’s imaginative campaign and the rather tired way
we run elections in Oxford is clear. Their reward for Hamburg was a 63.5%
turnout in the Bürgerschaft election, nearly double what we achieved in Oxford.
I would hope that in 2010 the City Council could put some thought, and some
investment, into encouraging people to vote.