Voter turnout remains low in Waterloo Region; 28.2 per cent turnout in Kitchener

WATERLOO REGION — Voter turnout has been stagnant across the region for three municipal elections in a row. At 33.5 per cent this year, the turnout was slightly lower than in 2014.

Robert Williams, a retired University of Waterloo political science professor, called the voting level “distressing.”

“People just don’t see it (municipal politics) as important,” he added.

In 2014 the average voter turnout across the province was 43 per cent, according to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. Locally, it was only 34.8 per cent.

The numbers are far lower than turnouts for the most recent provincial and federal elections where Waterloo Region came in very close to the provincial average of 58 per cent and federal average of 68.5 per cent.

Williams thinks the region’s low municipal turnout is because of a lack of big, contentious election issues to drive engagement. Even the race for a new regional chair didn’t steer more people to the polls.

“Elected officials are elected officials,” Williams said. “It’s the NIMBY (not in my backyard) notions that get people excited.”

That is where Cambridge stands out this election. The city elected a new mayor and saw a tiny jump in votes from 30 per cent in 2014 to 33 per cent this year. Williams said it is a small increase, but it is a reflection of the controversial matters the city has been struggling with in the past few years, from the multiplex project to the more recent issues of homelessness, addiction and safe injection sites.

“The fact that it bumped up a little bit and led to a change go together,” Williams added.

Turnout was varied across the region’s other municipalities. The townships saw a slightly lower turnout compared to the last municipal election, but Williams doesn’t think Monday’s online voting glitch had any impact on the township’s numbers.

Woolwich had the biggest dip in voter turnout, from 37 per cent in the last election to 31.3 per cent this year. Jeff Smith, deputy clerk in Woolwich, said he doesn’t believe voting delays are to blame.

In an email he said it wasn’t surprising to see a lower voter turnout with fewer candidates, an acclaimed mayor and an acclaimed councillor on the ballot.

Online and telephone voting were the only ways to cast a ballot in Woolwich and Wellesley this year. Both townships kept polls open an extra 24 hours to make up for Monday’s online voting snafu, caused by a server bandwidth issue that affected 48 other municipalities that also used the Dominion Voting Systems technology.

From the time the online voting system was restored on Monday to about 10 minutes before polls closed Tuesday, nearly 250 people voted in Wellesley. In Woolwich, 732 people voting during the same time frame.

“If you’re going to vote, you will vote with whatever method is available,” Williams said. “You won’t let a block get in your way.”

The townships got rid of paper ballots in favour of more convenient and accessible ways to cast a vote, such as online voting. In the past, these kinds of initiatives were seen as ways to improve voter turnout in the region. That didn’t happen this year and Williams finds it frustrating.

“I don’t know where we go from here in terms of boosting voter turnout with technology,” he added. “It gets back to the crucial question of getting people motivated to vote in the first place.”

Williams looked out his window at a green bin, recycling bin and a single bag of garbage at the curb outside his house. He said recent changes to when waste is picked up, every two weeks instead of weekly, is just one “tangible measure” of how municipal decisions impact our day-to-day lives.

“That is a municipal decision to push me toward being a more responsible citizen,” he said.

“It is where you, an as ordinary person, can play your part.”

Williams suggested the province could step in to advocate for better voter participation during election season. Or how about holding municipal elections on a Saturday like they do in British Columbia?

“There needs to be a concerted campaign to get people out to vote,” he said. “We need to do a better job.”