Christina Anderson was not planning to vote in next month’s federal election.

The 24-year-old Algonquin College student had voted in prior elections, but this time around she is scheduled to start an internship on May 2. She figured she just wouldn’t have time to cast her ballot.

Then a couple of weeks ago, Anderson logged on to Facebook to see a video that had been shared by a friend of hers. The video was of Rick Mercer’s March 29 rant on the Rick Mercer Report encouraging young people to vote.

The friend that linked to the post wasn’t particularly into politics. In fact, Anderson said, she “didn’t seem to care” about them. Out of curiosity, Anderson clicked on the link, watched the video and she began to change her mind about not voting.

“I think I’ve been convinced to do it,” she said.

Her decision, which is “not just because of Rick Mercer, and not just because of the flash mobs,” has also inspired her to apply to Elections Canada to work on the election.

The flash mobs Anderson is talking about are the so-called “vote mobs” which have been popping up on university campuses across the country since the beginning of April.

So far, at least 12 vote mobs have taken place at campuses across the country, with nearly two dozen more planned before the election. How many of the youth participating in the mobs will translate into votes remain unknown.

There are some who believe that the social media activity will translate to more young voters. Sidneyeve Matrix, a film and media studies professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, is one of those people.

She’s optimistic that the vote mobs will turn into real votes because, she said, the current social media activity during this election campaign is different than ones that came before it.

“This one is student-led,” she told the Star. “It’s the Guelph students that took it on.”

Young voters traditionally have not come out in huge numbers to the polls. In the 2008 election, voter turnout was 37.4 per cent for those between the ages of 18 and 24.

Paul Howe, a political science associate professor at the University of New Brunswick, agreed that this time around, the vote mobs may get more young people out to vote. The reason, he said, is because while the vote mobs have the online component (a viral video), they also have a real-life component to them (the real-life rally).

But even if the youth vote increases in numbers this time around, there’s no guarantee the demographic will continue to come out and vote in high numbers, Howe warned.

“It’s possible it’s a one-election phenomenon,” he said.

Not everyone agrees with Matrix and Howe, though. Tamara Small, professor of political science at Mount Allison University, said those participating in the voting mobs are probably people who would have voted “Internet or no Internet.”

“Technology isn’t going to get young people involved in politics,” she said.

“Something like these vote mobs or Facebook can reach out to people because it reaches them where they are … but technology isn’t going to change behaviour.”

Small said part of the reason she doesn’t think the current online push will translate to more voters at the polls is because the Internet is fragmented — if you don’t want to see politics online, you won’t.

“The relationship between technology and voter turnout is that there isn’t one.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Jamie Biggar, co-founder of LeadNow an organization which is helping to facilitate the vote mobs, disagreed with Small, saying that social media is what is bringing in those who normally would not participate in politics. Through sites like Facebook and Twitter, they’re seeing their friends are involved, and they’re watching the videos, he said.

“Vote mobs are a way to turn desire into action,” he said

For complete coverage of the youth vote, visit our Youth Nation 2011 series.

Read more about: