Voter turnout down from 2015 election

There was a plunge in the voter turnout for the ridings in the Peterborough area in Monday’s federal election, even though more votes were cast overall because of new voters voting for the first time.

With 282 of 283 polls reporting, 68,854 of 99,635 registered electors cast a vote in the Peterborough-Kawartha riding.

That’s a voter turnout of 69.11 per cent, excluding the voters in the other two polls.

That’s down from a 73.19 per cent turnout for the riding in 2015, when there were 91,180 eligible voters. In Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock, 65,015 of 98,985 registered electors cast a vote for a turnout of 65.68 per cent, down from 68.02 per cent in 2015, although more votes were cast since the number of registered electors was up from 91,208 in the last election.

In Northumberland-Peterborough South, 68,268 of 96,481 registered electors cast a vote for a turnout of 70.49 per cent. That rate is down from 71.67 per cent in 2015, although more votes were also cast since the number of registered electors was up from 89,128 in the last election.

With 222 of 224 polls reporting in Hastings-Lennox and Addington, east of Peterborough County, 51,321 of 80,079 eligible voters cast a vote for a turnout of 64.09 per cent, down from 68.83 in 2015 when there were 72,641 eligible voters.

Elections Canada cautions that the voter turnout tallies don’t take into account new voters that were registered on election day.

The voter turnout plunge happened even though turnout for the advance polls, held from Oct. 11 to 14, was much higher than the 2015 election advance poll turnout.

Elections Canada said 17,352 votes were cast at the advance polls in Peterborough-Kawartha, 2,101 more than were cast in the advance polls in 2015.