More Islanders appear to have voted in this year’s election than in 2022… but early analysis suggests that turnout remains stubbornly low despite a major expansion of the electoral roll, reforms designed to make voting easier and a huge awareness campaign.

Political engagement levels in Jersey have long been a point of Island shame, with the Island ranking well below other OECD nations.

Ahead of the 2022 election, new districts were created, Senators were removed, and ‘none of the above’ was added as an option in non-contested elections. However, voter turnout still dropped compared to the 2018 previous election.

This time round, estimates from independent think tank Policy Centre Jersey indicate that while thousands more people cast ballots this year, roughly two-thirds of eligible voters may still have stayed away from the polls.

A smaller turnout in appearance

The figures come after the introduction of automatic voter registration, which saw the number of registered voters increase by 40% compared to 2022, totalling more than 24,000 people.

As a result of this, it was expected that the overall turnout percentage would look smaller because the pool of registered voters was much greater to begin with.

The Vote.je team at the States Greffe are still yet to release the official results, but provisional estimates by the Policy Centre suggest that there were 2,200 more voters than the previous election – a rise of 7% – but that the overall turnout figure was 32%, a 10 percentage point decline on the 2022 figure of 42%.

Jenny Bevis, Director of the Policy Centre Jersey, said: “Automatic registration ensured that almost everyone who was entitled to vote was on the electoral register.

“However, a consequence of this is that people who have no intention of voting are included in the size of the electorate, which deflates the turnout figure.”

Jersey’s official turnout figure would still be “well below that of all OECD countries”, she added, at around 32%.

What else did we do differently this time round?

As well as automatic voter registration, other measures that could have affected turnout include the late-in-the-game reintroduction of Senators.

When the role was abolished in the 2022 election, there were both controversy and hopes that this would create a more diverse Assembly.

However, some felt that a lack of Island-wide mandate would negatively impact engagement levels.

Treasury Minister Elaine Millar put forward a successful proposition to reintroduce the role in time for this year’s election. She was among those to successfully stand for the returning role.

This year, voting also happened on a Sunday in the hope that this would bring out more voters. This was estimated to come at a cost of an extra £130,000 to the public purse.

It was the second election in a row featuring ‘none of the above’ as an option in races where there weren’t more candidates than posts.

Reflecting on his own win against ‘NOTA’ on Sunday, St Peter Constable Richard Vibert told Express he had been “worried for most of the day”, and that he had been “pleased” when the result came in, showing an improvement of his performance against NOTA.

He won with 83.7% of the votes.

“It’s democracy, some people will have a different view, and they’re perfectly entitled to express that by voting for None of the Above,” he said.

Which parishes were most engaged this year?

Without official figures, the Constable elections can be taken as a possible indicator of engagement.

And it seems that history repeated itself, with country parishes leading the way in voting while the urban ones lagged behind.

St Mary appeared to have the highest percentage of people who went to vote, near the 53% mark.

Despite being the Island’s most populous parish and home of much of its business and retail, St Helier saw the lowest turnout in its Constable election, where 21.9% of eligible voters cast a ballot.

How do we compare with Guernsey?

Guernsey has a very different system, where all candidates are elected to represent the Island as a whole.

During Bailiwick Podcasts’ Election Disassembled series, several election candidates pointed to the Island’s voting system as being better than Jersey’s.

According to the Policy Centre: “In all the international league tables Jersey’s figure will be 32% and Guernsey’s more than double that at 72%. 

“But, on a comparable basis (voters/eligible voters) the proportions are much closer: 32% in Jersey and 40% in Guernsey.”

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