This Sunday, Argentina will face its 12th midterm elections since the return of democracy in 1983. In these elections, where half the deputies and the senators of eight districts will be renewed, the spotlight falls on the participation of one segment in particular: youth.
This year’s national electorate incorporates almost 1.14 million youngsters aged between 16 and 17 representing 3.16 percent of the total and joining a critical mass – 40 percent of the total electorate is aged under 40.
The big question circulating in the political sphere is whether this injection of new voters will manage to revert the trend to low turnout observed in this year’s provincial elections.
Youth vote and single ballot duo
This influx of youth is occurring in a context of double novelty – not only the debut of this million-plus adolescents, whose vote is optional (not obligatory) according to the Youth Vote Law 26,774 approved in 2012, but also because it will be the first election using the single paper ballot (BUP in its Spanish acronym) at national level.
Youngsters, who historically register a lower turnout on average, face the challenge of familiarising themselves rapidly with a new voting system, testing their adaptability and their interest. Although the vote of this segment peaked with a participation of 68.6 percent in the presidential elections of 2023, the challenge with the midterms, in a context of a crisis of representation of the political parties, is always greater.
The influx is very uneven geographically. While some provinces like Santiago del Estero and Formosa register high turnouts of almost 70 percent for this age-group on average, others like Tierra del Fuego or Mendoza present much lower levels of even below a half. The distribution of the youth electorate is not uniform across the country. Buenos Aires Province, as the biggest electoral district, concentrates the most debutant voters, over 435,000, while northern provinces stand out for their youthful demographic structures.
Misiones is even more singular demographically with the highest percentage aged under 18 nationwide. Of the almost 38,000 enfranchised, two are registered as non-binary, a figure which underlines the transformation of gender identification within the electorate.
The risk of electoral apathy
Concerns about absenteeism are not unfounded. The electoral turnout in the midterms of recent years show a worrying trend. In 2009 and 2017 a total turnout of 78 percent was registered. The official data indicate that the turnout for midterms tends to be around 70 percent. The most recent dip was registered in 2021 with barely 71.7 percent, one of the lowest marks in recent democratic history.
In midterms the gap is even more conspicuous. In 2019 youth turnout was 63 percent as against a national average of 81 percent. Beyond these numbers, the turnout in seven provincial elections this year registered a fall of almost 19 percentage points with respect to historic national numbers.
Tomorrow’s challenge will definitely be double – to mobilise the youth segment and to prevent the total turnout of the electorate from deepening the trend towards electoral apathy registered during much of this year.
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by Amanda Alma, Perfil
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