With the election coming up this month, and the country buzzing with news about who’s doing what and how it will impact us, it’s super-important we talk to our young people about the responsibility of getting amongst the action and voting.

Even though it can seem daunting making these big political decisions ourselves for the first time, it is our chance as New Zealanders to have our say when it comes to how our country is governed. It’s one of the few times we get to have our voice heard by the big guys, and although it seems clichéd – every vote really does count. Only 64 percent of eligible voters aged 18-24 are currently enrolled to vote, but realistically this number should be a lot higher.

Trying to grasp all the different policies and parties can seem like a big dump of information that doesn’t make a lot of sense at first. This is one of the biggest reasons young New Zealanders aren’t jumping to vote – we just don’t know a lot about how our country is making decisions. It’s not common for politics to be learned in school, or for it to become a side-hobby an adolescent picks up out of nowhere. It’s a scary world of the unknown when you haven’t dived into it before, which is why there are some great resources to help young people (or anyone struggling to cast their vote) to figure out where they stand.

So, step one is education. Learning about the parties and what they are promising for New Zealand is simple. Policy.nz is a super-easy online tool produced by The Spinoff, which puts policies from all the different parties into categories and subcategories, so you can simply swipe through each group of topics and read about the things each party wants to achieve. If there’s a policy you don’t quite understand, you can just click on the box it is in and a pop-up will tell you why and how the party aims to complete this plan. If you don’t want to be biased at all, you can even choose to have the party names hidden so there is no added influence as you read through the lists.

The best feature of Policy.nz is that it can give you a really good idea of who to vote for based on the policies you like over all the categories. You can easily select the heart symbol next to each idea that you like, and when you’re done looking through the categories you can see a simple pie chart that highlights your favourite policies. This can paint a very clear picture of who you should choose for your vote when it comes to election time.

Enrolling is the next step to making sure you’re ready to vote. You can easily do this online, and it only takes about five minutes – all you need is one form of identification to complete the form.

So why is it so important for eligible youth to vote during the election? There are so many reasons why you should vote as soon as you get the chance. Having your say in what you’d like to happen for the country is the best way you can be involved in making a change. Today’s youth are naturally activists; we’ve become a generation of standing up for what we believe in and protesting the things we don’t. Take the recent climate change protests for example. There was such a huge turn-out of passionate young people who wanted to have their voices and concerns heard. Voting in the October election further solidifies this; it's an opportunity to express your devotion to certain ideas by being a part of choosing a government which reflects the way you want to see a future New Zealand.

It’s young people's responsibility to vote, but it’s just as easy to not be a part of it if they don’t understand how enrolling, voting or politics in New Zealand work. Adults, encourage the young people around you to get involved! Start conversations around the importance of voting, lend a hand to someone who feels they are uneducated about the system, and be willing to provide guidance to those who don’t quite understand how it all works yet.

The youngest voters are the first to start developing a country that will become our future. Every choice we make now will affect us in the long term, so it’s crucial that we vote as soon as we can, to start being a part of the movement we want to see. If you’re a fresh eligible voter and not enrolled, or if you’ve been part of the voting system for a while but you see young people who aren’t sure about having their say in this year's election, it’s time to be a part in making a difference.