Young citizens globally exhibit low voter turnout, resulting in political parties neglecting issues of importance to the youth, such as climate change and well-paid employment.

In an attempt to address this issue, research from the Aix-Marseille School of Economics examined the impact of low-cost online interventions on motivating young Moroccans to participate and make informed choices in the 2021 elections.

Political engagement

The study targeted young individuals in Morocco through Facebook, employing strategies such as game playing and quizzes to enhance civic education and instill the belief in the significance of voting.

Prior to the September 2021 election, the researchers employed Facebook ads to recruit 7,521 participants aged 18 to 35 in Morocco. Given the widespread use of social media in the country, particularly Facebook, which is utilized by 70.5% of Moroccan internet users aged 16–64 on a monthly basis, this approach proved effective.

The online interventions facilitated participants in verifying their registration status on the voter list and provided guidance through the registration process if necessary. Moreover, they presented civic education materials in the form of a concise video emphasizing the role of voting in bolstering institutions.

Additionally, an online tool was utilized to help participants align their policy preferences with political parties by comparing their stated positions on various politically significant issues. Following the election, the authors conducted a brief follow-up survey to gauge actual voter turnout and party selection. The results yielded both surprising and expected outcomes.

Contrary to their initial expectations, the interventions did not result in a notable increase in the overall voter turnout.

“Mobilizing voters can be costly,” the authors explain. “We learned it’s important to determine the type of voter that you have in front of you to make the most of those efforts. Someone who is very engaged can’t really be moved and neither can someone who is totally disengaged, so you might not want to spend a lot of resources on them. It’s a good lesson and good information for political parties or non-government organizations or any group committed to increasing participation in elections in any country in ways that are scalable and inexpensive.”

Voter preferences

Suffice it to say, it would perhaps not be too big a problem if younger people didn’t vote as much as older people if voter preferences were identical, but that’s clearly untrue. For instance, young people are more likely to care about things like mental health and climate change. To better engage younger voters will require a renewed emphasis on user experience.

The study presents a mixed bag of results, encompassing positive developments as well as potential challenges. On a positive note, the provision of information regarding political parties’ platforms yielded favorable outcomes by enhancing support for the party aligning closely with respondents’ preferences, thereby promoting more informed voting. However, this finding must be considered in light of an important caveat.

“The good news is that if we think that people should vote for the party that represents their policy preferences, we were able to move people to do that in a relatively inexpensive way,” the researchers explain. “You want people to vote for the party that represents them best.”

The flip side is that it was also fairly straightforward to shift people in a particular direction, which the authors believe poses a particular risk in our era of misinformation.

“In this age of misinformation, it means that someone who’s dishonest could use disinformation in such settings to move voters in quite a nefarious way,” they conclude. It was a warning sign of how uncritical voters can be, and that is an important lesson.”