Voter turnout remains an embarrassment

A lot of factors affect turnout during elections.

The weather, who is in the race, issues and how they resonate with voters, time of year … the list goes on. But to say turnout for last week’s municipal elections in Niagara was underwhelming would be an understatement.

Overall, voter turnout across Niagara declined by more than two percentage points, from 41.3 per cent in 2014 to 39 per cent this year. It’s embarrassing.

Many individual municipalities in Niagara did record marginal increases in voter turnout, but many of these were among the smaller towns and cities.

In terms of municipal size, the three largest Niagara municipalities — St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland — also had some of the worst turnouts. There were individual peaks and valleys, with Niagara-on-theLake reporting the highest turnout in the region at 58.74 per cent, and St. Catharines, the largest single lower tier municipality reporting the lowest at 33.64 per cent.

So what happened this year? In Welland and St. Catharines, the mayoral races, usually the most high-profile contests in a municipal vote, were hardly compelling. Incumbents in both cities — Walter Sendzik in the Garden City and Frank Campion in the Rose City — did not face particularly strong challengers.

As Niagara-on-the-Lake town clerk Peter Todd said in an interview with The Standard’s Karena Walter, explaining his municipality’s high turnout which represented a 10-point increase over 2014: “This year I think there were many factors, it’s hard to just pinpoint one. We had good weather down here so that’s always a factor that plays into it as well. A highly contested mayoral race though, is always a pretty significant factor.”

But counteracting that argument is the turnout in Niagara Falls, 39.06 per cent. That number does represent an increase over 2014, which saw 36.7 per cent turnout. However, Niagara Falls had an interesting mayoral race, with incumbent Jim Diodati pitted against councillor and former MPP Kim Craitor. Three were also interesting regional races in the Falls, with 12 people vying for three seats.

In addition, there were some fascinating and vitally important election battles in other areas, particularly on the regional council front, that one would have thought might have drawn out more voters.

In St. Catharines, 22 people were seeking six regional council positions in a year that had seen major controversies dog the senior municipal body. Yet still, St. Catharines repeated its 2014 achievement of having the worst turnout in Niagara.

Of course, Niagara is hardly alone in reporting poor municipal election interest. In Toronto, 41 per cent returned John Tory, a massive drop from 2014 when 60 per cent voted. It’s a number that’s hard to explain when one considers the last-minute changes made by the province to that city’s municipal election landscape.

Then there’s Hamilton, which had 38.6 per cent turnout this time around, a sturdy increase from the 33.6 per cent who came out four years ago. But it’s hardly inspiring. What needs to happen? Nobody seems sure.

New voting systems are being tinkered with. London, Ont., became the first Canadian municipality to try a ranked ballot system. It took 14 rounds of balloting and 18 hours after the polls closed a winner was finally declared. Even with the novel way of voting, turnout was just 39 per cent. Lincoln led the way in Niagara, allowing online voting this year and saw a small increase in turnout, an encouraging sign and one which may mark the way forward.

In the meantime, those who will sit in elected municipal positions for the next four years should keep in mind the need to reach out to constituents, to emphasize the importance of municipal governance and the services it provides.