Boosting voter turnout may cost $300K, committee hears

A pitch to increase voter turnout for the civic election with initiatives such as free transit, “I voted” stickers and candidate platforms posted on a city website will cost an estimated $300,000, a council committee heard Tuesday.

The priorities and finance committee on Tuesday gave the green light to several ideas from Calgary’s returning officer Paul Denys that aim to improve accessibility and the voter experience during the Oct. 16 municipal election.

In response to a question from Ward. 14 Coun. Peter Demong, Denys told councillors the nine recommendations will cost an estimated $300,000 over and above what is typically spent on a municipal election in Calgary.

If council as a whole approves the ideas later this month, the 2017 municipal election could feel different from previous years.

The new initiatives include introducing candidate profile pages on the Elections Calgary website, expanding locations where people can vote in advance, celebrating voters with stickers and a social media campaign, increasing voter communication at summer events such as the Stampede and Folk Festival, and mailing out free transit tickets in the election brochure.

“I think it’s at least a step to try to encourage greater participation,” said Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, who is running for the mayor’s chair in the 2017 election.

“You know what they say, low voter turnout favours the incumbent.”

The new ideas come following a push from Ward 8 Coun. Evan Woolley, the youngest member of council, to get more people casting ballots, especially millennials.

The voter turnout in Calgary’s 2013 municipal election was 39 per cent compared with 53 per cent in 2010, when no incumbent was running for the mayor’s seat.

“It’s incumbent on us as a municipal government to continue pushing for higher voter turnout," Woolley said at Tuesday’s meeting.

“I appreciate these are all tactics we’ll try out … Maybe some of them don’t work at all, maybe some work really well.”