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Small turnout during Youth Congress polls
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Posted on Sep 16 2008
The CNMI Youth Congress election on Monday was slow going for poll workers, with less than a third of registered voters coming out to cast their ballots.
According to a report from the Legislative Bureau, which conducted the elections, only 27 percent of the voters participated in this year’s Youth Congress election. Out of the total 3,549 registered, only 975 voted.
The low turnout was noted in both the school and precinct levels. In the schools, 34 percent—844 out of 2,512—came out to vote. The precincts fared ever worse, with a turnout of 13 percent—131 out of 1,037 voters.
Glenna SP Reyes, deputy director at the Legislative Bureau, said the low turnout could be because of the late opening of schools this year and the observed lack of interest among the out-of-school voters.
Because schools opened late this year, there was little time to register freshmen students who would otherwise have been eligible to participate in the election. “[The LB staff members] were able to get a good number of students to register, but they did not have enough time to really reach out to all and to be able to provide sufficient information about the program to entice new youth voters to take part,” Reyes said.
As for the precincts, she said, voter turnout has always been low and it continues to drop. She noted that two or three polling sites received no voters at all.
Azumi Ishida, a student at Marianas High School, said many students lack interest in the Youth Congress because they are not informed of its activities. Typically, students only hear about the Youth Congress during elections.
“What the candidates do once they’re elected, we don’t really know. They don’t give us the details,” Ishida said.
The Youth Congress, according to its enabling statute, was established “to provide a system that allows the youth to prepare to meet the challenges of the future and to make recommendations to the policy makers on youth programs.”
The Youth Congress has three posts for Northern Marianas College, one for each participating public or private high school, and 10 for the election precincts.
CNMI residents who are 14 to 20 years are eligible to participate in the Youth Congress.
