People who find voting complicated could come and test vote in Roosendaal on Monday. The municipality has been struggling with extremely low turnout in elections for years. By inviting people to come and test vote, the municipality hopes to turn the tide. But even now the voters failed to do so. Only pre-invited school classes showed up and received an explanation of how voting works.
Although no voter showed up, project leader Anja Beerens does not think the test voting was a failure. “Many students from the school classes that came were very enthusiastic. They will certainly vote as soon as they are old enough and that is already a win,” she says.
Shocked
Beerens previously organized elections in other municipalities, but was shocked by the low turnout in Roosendaal. According to her, this is due to the many low-literate people in Roosendaal, which was traditionally a factory town. There are also many foreigners who come from countries where no free elections are held at all. For all those people, voting could be very complicated.
“We want as many people as possible to vote in Roosendaal and then it helps if you lower the threshold by letting people test vote,” says Beerens. According to her, it is quite complicated for many people to cast their vote, especially now that so many parties are participating. During test voting, they receive an explanation of how voting works. But despite all those good intentions, voters stayed away from the test voting.
Exploring society
Those who did show up were the students with intellectual disabilities from the special education school De Kameleon in Roosendaal. Teacher Jack van Uum: “We really want to explore society with our students, so that they know what is for sale in the world.”
According to him, life consists of more than just arithmetic and reading. The students are still too young to vote on Wednesday. “But we thought it was very important that they know what a polling station looks like and how it works. Then when they are allowed to vote, they will know how to make their choice.”