The Apathetic Voter

Working with graphic design, moving image, and other illustration students, we organised a mock election intervention, held after the 2024 Irish elections to bring awareness to the record-breaking low voter turn out amongst young people. We faked an election aimed to rage bait students to encourage them to vote at a voting poll where we then had information on the previous elections, information on the importance of voting and resources to help students register to vote, if they were not already. The aim of this was to highlight the importance of voting, especially for young people who report disproportionate levels of government dissatisfaction. This project was really important to everyone that worked on it, as a group of students who have felt continuously abandoned by their government and were now also let down by their fellow peers. The most impactful part of this experience was not the research or interviews done during the prep, but the level of outrage we managed to spark amongst students over such a frivolous topic. People jumped into gear immediately after hearing about the vote, all the while many had never even registered to vote. The hypocrisy really struck me and many of the students themselves admitted to feeling quite ashamed with themselves and were quick to register on the spot, with help from our resources.