Improving Voter Turnout

NRU
Sept. 17, 2014
By Leah Wong

In the 2010 municipal election most municipalities recorded voter turnouts of less than 50 per cent, meaning most local councils were not endorsed by the majority of residents.

There are many reasons residents are choosing not to vote, ranging from happy apathy to a lack of knowledge about candidates. While structural methods that could improve municipal voter turnout have not been implemented, and are oft en unpopular, local community organizations are finding a way to improve engagement and educate the next generation of voters.

Turnout across the GTHA ranged from a low of 25.5 per cent in Halton Hills to a high of 51.8 per cent in Uxbridge. The competition in these two races was quite different-Halton Hills mayor Rick Bonnette was acclaimed in 2010, while in Uxbridge then-former mayor Gerri Lynn O’Connor beat out incumbent mayor Bob Shepherd.

University of Toronto political science assistant professor Renan Levine told NRU one of the reasons people are less likely to vote locally as opposed to provincially or federally is because municipal elections are non-partisan.

It can be easier for voters to choose a candidate to support when one of the choices is polarizing or there is a competitive mayoral race. For example, the polarizing character of Mayor Rob Ford is an advantageous to voter engagement. While it’s easy for voters to decide if they’re for or against a candidate like Ford, it’s harder to figure out which candidate is most closely aligned with their beliefs.

“The number of people who are more engaged goes up when you have a high-profile, polarizing campaign going on. What we’ve experience in Toronto recently is unusual,” said Levine.

Having a partisan race could improve turnout as it is easier for voters, particularly those who are less engaged, to distinguish candidates’ positions on certain issues.

It’s more common now for municipal leaders to be in office for a long time, which affects the pace of a municipal race. Mayor Hazel McCallion, who is stepping down at the end of this term, didn’t actively campaign in the latter years of her tenure. This has an impact on the races for councillors.

When there isn’t an active mayoral race focusing attention, it’s harder to engage voters in the other races underway.

Another challenge is that there are many candidates with similar ideological backgrounds. In the Mississauga race, for example, both front-runner candidates Bonnie Crombie and Steve Mahoney are former Liberal MPs.

“If you’re an NDPer and you’re not particularly engaged in politics, it might be easy for you to say, ‘well I’m on the left. Which one is on the left,’” said Levine. “Given that it’s nonpartisan, some of the cues voters normally rely on, if they vote, are not present.”

Local governance arguably has the most impact on daily life-school trustees make decisions that affect local schools and councillors deal with a municipality’s water. Yet municipal elections typically have lower voter turnout than federal or provincial elections. But with many candidates having similar stances on local services, it can be hard to differentiate among the choices.

“Of course every candidate is in favour of better schools and every candidate is in favour of good drinking water,” said Levine. “The details are hard for even long time astute political followers to wade through, let alone someone who is only casually interested in local politics, which, let’s face it, is most people.”

Increasing residents’ engagement can be difficult as there is likely some level of “happy apathy” in municipalities said Levine. Unless there are allegations of corruption, such as in London and Brampton, or there is a new tax with which people are unhappy, many voters will be okay with the status quo and not see the need to cast a ballot.

When elections are held and how people vote may also impact turnout. Currently election day is on a work/school-day, creating lots of barriers for people who might vote under different circumstances. Giving people the day off or allowing people to vote by phone or online might get more people to cast a ballot.

Ajax, for example, has introduced internet voting this year.

“Another very effective way of boosting turnout, which we don’t do in North America, is fining people if you don’t vote,” said Levine. Fines or a day-off for voting are two things that aren’t oft en talked about, but would likely be an effective way of boosting turnout.

More oft en the focus is on getting out the vote campaigns, as implementing parties at the local level or introducing mandatory voting is unpopular. One way local organizations are trying to improve turnout is to start educating the next generation of voters to create a more engaged and interested youth population.

CIVIX, a charitable organization which is trying to improve engagement with young people, is coordinating mock municipal elections at schools across the province. The challenges of running municipal elections mimic some of the challenges voters have in choosing who to support.

“There are challenges when you get outside of a major urban centre like Toronto and you go to somewhere where there isn’t a serious race or there are a lot of acclamations or the mayor is a shoo-in,” said CIVIX president and chief election officer Taylor Gunn. “There isn’t the same degree of participation as in a provincial or federal election.”

In larger centres such as Toronto or Mississauga, Gunn said media coverage of races makes it easier for voters to learn about their local candidates. In smaller municipalities, it can be difficult to find information about candidates. As a result in 2010 some teachers opted not to run mock council or school trustee elections, instead focusing on local mayoral races. CIVIX is working on compiling information on local candidates to help teachers facilitate more fulsome elections this year.

CIVIX started running mock elections because it sees citizen engagement as something that can be taught and shaped into a habit through education. School is one of the best places to learn about the importance of elections and casting a ballot said Gunn.

“Our greatest concern is if they’re not learning about this at school, the evidence is shaping up to show they’re not learning about it anywhere else,” said Gunn.

The Laidlaw Foundation is also working on improving youth engagement this election. A call for proposals for local groups to receive a micro-grant for projects engaging youth on municipal issues closed last week. While many of the groups that submitted proposals would be organizing engagement events without the grants, the foundation is offering financial support to facilitate these projects.

“Young people are extremely active in their communities and they’re very civically engaged,” Laidlaw Foundation program manager Ana Skinner told NRU.

While young people are very involved, many do not feel connected to their local representatives. As many youth either are under the voting age or choose not to vote, politicians do not always include the interests of youth in their platforms. The hope is that if youth groups are running community events around the election candidates will attend and start talking to youth about the issues that are important to them.

Past the election Skinner said it’s important that councilors become more actively involved with their youth residents, either by showing up at events or working on issues that are important to youth. This would encourage more youth to get out and vote.