'Education and communication key to voter turnout'

A researcher who looked at Jersey's low voter turnout during the 2022 General Election has said education and communication were key to any future increase in numbers.

Jersey's 41.7% turnout during the 2022 election was one of the lowest figures among a group of the world's most developed countries.

Dr Christopher Pich, a researcher and associate professor at Nottingham University Business School, completed a project in 2025 looking at how to strengthen turnout in Jersey.

He has worked with the Government of Jersey to implement several pilot voter strategies ahead of the 2026 General election but said more work was needed to see a large increase.

He said communicating the voting process including what people vote for and if their vote makes a difference were important to more and more people.

"It's really clarifying some of those key barriers that already exist, but also making politics relevant and impactful and really communicating that to every voter whether you're young or old," he said.

"It's really making sure you've got that clear message and making people care about politics as well, that's a really key driver."

He said his research found there was little focus on local politics in Jersey schools.

"At the moment in schools across Jersey everything focuses on UK or global politics," he said.

"Our research has identified that you need to make things go back to local issues and local problems in order to have an impact in voter turnout.

"We've been working with the educators and schools in Jersey to create a series of programmes and sessions which address some of these knowledge gaps."

A call for better political education was made by Jersey Youth Assembly at a meeting earlier on Tuesday.

Pich said the work he had already done with the government could see an increase in the number of voters at the general election on 7 June.

"I think it'll hopefully go some way to strengthen engagement but what we're saying is it's a long-term strategy that we're putting forward," he said.

"At the moment we're trialling and piloting our programmes that we've co-developed with educators in Jersey.

"In an ideal world we would love to have had it rolled out in all schools before the election.

"We just don't want to rush it and we've got to get it right in order to make sure that the information is correct, it's engaging, it's interactive, it's creative."

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