Probe examines low municipal election turnout
A commission is looking into why Montreal’s municipal elections have had such low participation. Only 38.3% of eligible voters turned out in November 2021, down from an already pitiful 42.47% in 2017.
As Jeanne Corriveau writes, interest in last year’s vote could have been weakened by Covid, by the federal election that closely preceded it, or by the narrow restrictions on voting by mail, but none are complete explanations. But how do you get people to feel more involved, at least to the extent of feeling it’s worth casting a vote?
Two things are not raised in the item, which have been mentioned before on this blog, but are worth considering:
1. Educating people on the functioning of city government and making clear what’s done for them by city hall and what’s done by the borough. People are amazingly vague on the domains of operation of the levels of government and, I think, often don’t realize that the quality of life in their surroundings is largely a municipal realm, so if you want a say in how things look and feel in your neighbourhood, go vote in the next municipal election.
2. Find some way to allow permanent residents to vote in municipal elections. I don’t know how deep this would have to go in changing Canadian or Quebec law, but there must be some way to do it. Or even, to get around that, have an election in which permanent residents could choose a parallel council that would have some participation in city hall decisions! If this worked right, I bet actual citizens would take more interest, but I don’t have any idea whether it’s workable.
Dominic 13:51 on 2022-08-30 Permalink
Two excellent ideas.
Additional ones would be to lengthen the voting period. There is no reason why the election can’t be a week, or two, and have drop-off boxes at metro stations, malls, major locations, etc.
Another thing since its somewhat low-risk, start to explore the potential for secure online-voting. It can be done, but no one wants to be the first to try to figure it out.
MarcG 14:24 on 2022-08-30 Permalink
It could also be that representative democracy just isn’t satisfying to a lot of people. Implement Universal basic income so that people can have some free time and set up neighbourhood committees – I bet participation would be higher.
Chris 19:03 on 2022-08-30 Permalink
>…secure online-voting. It can be done…
No, it can’t. Especially when your adversary has state-level resources, which is exactly the kind of adversary that would attack an election. Secure against script kiddies maybe, but secure against the NSA and its like: No.
Tim S. 08:51 on 2022-08-31 Permalink
I once took a Canadian history course that turned out to focus almost entirely on the evolution of the voting system. It was really fascinating, and the upshot is, every single thing about how we vote, from the thickness of the ballot paper to the location of the polling station, is there because in the past someone tried to take advantage from the slightest opening in the system. I won’t completely rule out online voting in the future, but it would be much, much more difficult to implement than most proponents imagine.
Another thing that came up in that class is that in systems which have mandatory voting, say Australia, it turns out about 10% of the population just ticks off the name at the top of the list (which in turn led parties to try to recruit candidates with names from the beginning of the alphabet). So I’d like there to be a more informed, active citizenry, but be careful about assuming a high voting rate necessarily implies engagement.
Personally, I think the problem lies in the media which focuses more on national/provincial events. A good start would be re-invigorating local news, but that’s preaching to the choir here.
Kate 13:14 on 2022-08-31 Permalink
Tim S.! “Arnold A. Aardvark, Australian Communist People’s Front”!