Prince George, B.C. – A new study reveals young people may be more engaged in the voting process than previously thought.

The study, conducted by a third year public policy class at the University of Northern British Columbia, was aimed at finding out what the barriers were (if any) that prevent young people aged 18-35 from voting.

“We expected that youth were not voting, but engaging in other ways,” says student Kendra Kinsley. “But however just in our survey, we found that youth who completed the survey actually voted more in previous elections than other ways.”

How much more?

“Out of the people who voted in the last federal election, 84% of our sample population (229) actually voted in it. Slightly over half said they voted in the municipal and provincial elections. But a majority overall voted.”

The results were not what they expected.

“We thought we would see a lot of transportation barriers or people having trouble with registering to vote but 85% of our responders actually didn’t actually have trouble with transportation and 75% didn’t have trouble with voter registration.”

As for why respondents to the survey voted, she says 59% mentioned they did so out of a sense of civic duty while 50% also voted for “real change.”

She says the class plans to present their findings as a delegation to city council May 9th.