HawthorneVillager.com

Municipal voter turnout for Ontario in 2006 was 41%. The number for 2010 is not available yet but will probably be up a little. Many municipalities seem to be up and Toronto was 53.2%.

Halton did not have a contest for the senior position as Chairman which probably had some negative impact on turnout.

Turnout in Halton Hills was 25.6%. The Mayor, one of two region councillors, and the two Acton councillors were acclaimed.

Turnout in Milton was 32.6% versus 30.1% in 2006.

Turnout in Burlington was 37.5% versus 34.8% in 2006. They made an effort, including internet voting, to improve turnout. The increase could also be due to the mayor race where there were 4 challengers including 2 sitting councillors. The incumbent lost.

Turnout in Oakville was 40% versus 35% in 2006. They also had a race for mayor - a rematch between the incumbent and the former mayor. The incumbent won.

Good to see the voter turnout in the municipal elections growing. I'll admit, that previous municipal elections did not spark my attention. However, looking back, I consider my lack of participation disappointing.

Considering that a person's home is usually their largest physical asset investment, and the impact that municipal policies can have on the value of that asset, it is almost disturbing to think that still only ~33% of eligible Miltonians voted. Particularly in Milton, where growth is occurring all around us, and there is a short window of opportunity in front of us to influence how that growth proceeds - as opposed to more established communities like Burlington, Oakville, etc.

Needless to say, the increase in turnout % is a trend in the right direction. I would be interested to know more about the Internet voting that was mentioned. I can imagine that would only help increase voter participation by removing the "too lazy to go to the local school for 10 minutes to vote" factor.

I am glad to see voter turnout increasing. We need to grow it even more though. To me, only one out of three people voting (in Milton) is still way too low.

_________________
Steve Camilleri
http://twitter.com/scamilleri1975

There are a lot of factors that help in increasing voter turnout. Obviously one is voter engagement in issues. You can see by Toronto people were engaged in what was going on and candidates fed off that. Another factor are the "big races" You can see again by Toronto, a very high profile mayoral race brought out voters and conversley in Halton Hills with no mayoral race had the opposite effect.

In Milton ward 2 had the highest turnout because of the number of candidates, the fact there were two incumbents running against each other and the "battle" that was going on. Same for regional 2,3,4,5...two incumbents in a 3 way race and the quality of candidates as well.

The old ward one (which is now 1,6,7,8) had 23.5% turnout and I havent crunched numbers but I think its improved...ward 8 had close to 32% turnout and with mostly new Milton residents. Ward 6 had close to 30% turnout which is a definate improvement.

Things can get better the more people are engaged and feel they have a say in things. Thats the big challenge for this council, myself included, to make sure we do our best to keep people informed, and try to engage them in the process as much as possible.

The trend for the last few elections has been going down and this is really our first up swing in turnout, so we cant lose that momentum over the next 4 years.

As the voters in ward 2 found out, every vote does count so hopefully people will remember that in the coming years and make sure they vote when the time comes.

Next test is the provincial election and or the federal election which is expected in spring/fall of next year.

_________________
Mike Cluett
Milton Town Councillor

Website | Email mike@mikecluett.ca | Cell (647) 888-9032 | Facebook Page | | Twitter @Mike_Cluett

It has now been reported that about 2500 or 2.1% of eligible voters used Burlington's new internet voting option. Burlington says internet voting was successful but I would think it must be disappointing. A good portion of those who would go to the trouble to register for internet voting would probably have voted anyway through advance or regular polls.

Hopefully a full report will eventually be made to Burlington council but it does not appear that this is a quick fix for low turnout.

After talking to probably 1000+ people (easily), I have a different view than I had before I started canvassing.

It seems like we had enough opportunities to vote. We could've voted during the thanksgiving Monday and during the weekend after that.

I can't count the number of people who told me right away that they "did not vote" or were "not interested in elections". These people had a candidate at their doorstep willing to answer their questions. Internet voting, flyers or other programs won't convince them otherwise. They didn't choose not to vote because they didn't think they had good candidates, they chose not to even take my flyer because they just didn't care.

I was a huge proponent of internet voting. Unfortunately, I am no longer sure if it'll help.

Zeeshan Hamid

_________________
Milton Councillor, Ward8.ca
zee@ward8.ca | Facebook | twitter | 416-823-6993

That's an interesting anecdote, indeed. Likening this to a "sales pitch", I wonder if people simply don't:

a) feel enough "pain" to cause them to take action (voting)
b) believe that taking the action to vote will solve the pain
c) both (a) and (b)

When I think of the reason I became interested in this election, it really boils down to a combination of current and potential future "pain". I envision that if action/decisions aren't taken now, there will be serious issues and problems in the future. That's my "pain", which caused me to take action (voting) to change the status quo.

my old hometown of Stratford did the internet voting, and everyone involved thought it was going to really raise the bar. problem is, the person who set up the site did it in such a way that it would only handle a certain amount of hits at the same time, and froze up...
my brother and nieces, who admittedly waited til 6pm election night to vote, could not cast their ballots after 2 hours of trying...
what a disaster!
just a thought if we try it next time that the site needs to be able to handle the rush of the last minute voter...

I agree with Zeeshan's comments. What we need to try and do first is get people interested and engaged in local politics (how we do this is an entirely different discussion). Once people are really interested in voting, we can start the discussion on improving availability for people to vote (internet voting for example). We should not put the cart before the horse. I will bring this point up on Monday evening at the HVRA meeting.

_________________
Steve Camilleri
http://twitter.com/scamilleri1975