Outside several Winnipeg polling stations on Monday, many young voters snapped proof that they cast a ballot in the 42nd Canadian federal election.
The next step was to post the “voter selfie” on various social media platforms to let their circle of friends know they should do the same.
“If this is one way we can communicate and show to people, ‘Hey, I did this’ and then they’ll be like, ‘I’ve got to go do that now too,’” said Lindsay Somers, who took a picture at arm’s length after casting her ballot this afternoon.
“Never has the selfie been so politicized,” said social media expert Susie Erjavec Parker. “The peer pressure and the commonality of a lot of people doing it is pushing people who might not have done it before to get out there and express their opinion.”
There is also hope that online chatter about voting will bring up voter turnout for young Canadians.
In 2011, according to Elections Canada, 38.8 per cent of Canadians from ages 18-24 voted, which has been the general pattern since 2004.
“I don’t know how much higher voter turnout is going to be, but I think there is a bigger push this time just because of the dynamics of the campaign,” said pollster Curtis Brown, the vice-president of Probe Research.
Brown thinks if voter turnout is up, you could attribute some of that to social media.
“You can’t profess ignorance this election, the second you open up Facebook page or Instagram you’re probably going to be seeing all these selfies,” he said.
Jessica Winnicki made sure to post proof of her vote online and is feeling optimistic by how fast her feed is moving today.
“It’s encouraging because it shows that there is a huge turn out and that our generation is being represented in the vote this year.”
