King Township’s municipal voter turnout drops again

Less than one third of the electorate -- 30.86 per cent -- cast their ballots.

YorkRegion.com
November 1, 2018
Sheila Wang

The voter turnout rate for 2018 King Township municipal election was the lowest since 2006, and two per cent lower than 2014. 

A vast majority of King residents have chosen not to exercise their franchise in this municipal election, as less than one third of the electorate -- 30.86 per cent -- cast their ballots to elect the representatives of the township.

It means that some 13,000 residents out of the 18,803 eligible voters have sat back and had the decisions made by others in shaping the new council for the 2018-2022 term.

“The 30 per cent range is on average,” said King Township Clerk Kathryn Moyle. “It’s a reasonable turnout. Obviously, everybody hopes for a higher turnout, but in lieu of the fact that there is no mayoral race, it certainly does have an impact.”

The turnout rate was even lower than the 2014 municipal election where both Mayor Steve Pellegrini and Ward 1 Coun. Cleve Mortelliti were acclaimed.

The voter turnout rate in 2014 was at 33 per cent, already a significant dip from the two previous elections from 2006 and 2010 where nearly half the eligible voters went to the polls.

The clerks said there were contentious mayoral races in the two elections which has brought more people out to vote. Meanwhile, there were also key issues on the line such as water, sewage and servicing.

In this election, on the other hand, there was no contentious issues like that, Moyle noted.

Ward 4 has seen the highest turnout in this election where incumbent Bill Cober garnered 879 votes defeating his opponent Mary Asselstine who got 572 votes, according to king.ca.

Meanwhile, Ward 6 saw the lowest voter turnout as incumbent Avia Eek beat out the challenger Roman Dyriw by 40 votes: 262 to 122.

“It is disappointing to see such low voter turnout, especially given how important and directly impacting municipal governance is,” said King-Vaughan MP Deb Schulte.
Schulte watched election results on Monday night in her riding. Vaughan also saw a drop-off in voter turnout rate this year -- 27 per cent from 30 per cent in 2014.

Statistics show the municipal election voter turnout registers a notable decline trend over the past 12 years across York Region. The average voter turnout is 33 per cent, five per cent down from four years ago.

Another factor that keeps the voters away from the polling stations, Moyle pointed out, is having the provincial election in the same year.

More than half of the province’s 9.2 million eligible voters cast their ballots in the provincial election, according to Elections Ontario.

It is not uncommon that voters are generally more engaged in provincial and federal elections than the civic elections, Moyle said.

In King, she said the low voter turnout rate also indicates that residents are happy and content.

In order to enhance the public engagement in the civic election, Moyle said all agencies and levels of government should work together to promote the awareness.

“There could be a combined and concerted effort to promote the municipal acts more so. It shouldn’t be only on the responsibility of one municipality.”