In the Upper House election this summer, an early polling place will be set up on the Shukutoku University Chiba Campus in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, and the memorandum of understanding for the establishment of the polling place was held at the Shukutoku University Shukutoku Memorial Hall.It is expected that the turnout of young people will increase by setting up an early voting center at the university in the Upper House election, which will be held by lowering the voting age to 18 years or older.
According to Shukutoku University, Chiba City Chuo Ward Election Commission Chairman Chikako Nishizawa and Shukutoku University President Ei Adachi signed a memorandum of understanding.The opening period is two days on weekdays, and the time is from 2 am to 10 pm.Not only students, but any voter in Chuo Ward can vote.The deadline will be decided through discussions in the future.
At Shukutoku University's early voting center, students from the Faculty of Community Policy played a central role in making proposals to the city election commission.The university also hopes that students will feel closer to elections and politics because the voting place is closer.
According to the city of Chiba and others, the turnout of people in their twenties in the previous Upper House elections and the 2015 Unified Local Elections was nearly 20 points below the overall average.The city aims to improve the turnout of young people by setting up an early voting center at the university.
Early polling stations are increasingly being set up not only in public facilities such as city halls, but also in commercial facilities where people gather. In the 2015 Chiba Prefectural Election, it was installed in 5 cities and 9 locations, including Aeon in Chiba City.Since the upper house election has lowered the voting age to 18 years old and over, the installation at universities is drawing attention nationwide.Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture and Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture are also set up as government-designated cities, and Urayasu City, Chiba Prefecture and Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture are also set up as neighboring municipalities.
