I've taken a look at the voter turnout from constituencies across Alberta and after a quick scan of the list, I've identified at least 22 constituencies that had less than 40% voter turnout. The worst turnout being in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo where nearly 80% of registered voters didn't vote. Regardless of the results, this abysmal turnout is pretty appalling.
Voter Turnout - Constituency
21% - Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo
26% - Lesser Slave Lake
27% - Calgary-Cross
28% - Grande Prairie-Wapiti
28% - Peace River
29% - Bonnyville-Cold Lake
29% - Red Deer-North
30% - Calgary-Buffalo
30% - Calgary-Montrose
30% - Grande Prairie-Smoky
32% - Calgary-East
32% - Calgary-McCall
35% - Calgary-Nose Hill
35% - Edmonton-Decore
38% - Banff-Cochrane
38% - Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview
38% - Edmonton-Ellerslie
38% - Edmonton-Centre
38% - West Yellowhead
39% - Calgary-Shaw
39% - Edmonton-Manning
39% - Livingstone-Macleod
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
22 alberta constituencies had less than 40% turnout in monday's election.
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15 comments:
You have Calgary Cross on there twice, with 2 different percentages...
And this is why that I'm not sure PR or mixed member or STV or any of these other systems would make a difference in voter turn-out rates.
Half the ridings on that list had the pottential to be nail bitters - a few of them even switched hands. So, even when their vote mattered, people still didn't bother casting their vote.
Wow. The lowest turnouts are in a lot of the ones that turned over. That's really saying something, and it's not anything good. About anyone.
May I ask where you got your data from? I've been wondering based on my scrutineering experience whether our constituency might have actually had a particularly high turnout, at least for Alberta in this election. We had an unprecedented number of signups at the polling station, all of them legit. There were so many that they were backed up out the door as of about 5:00.
I guess that many people just couldn't bear to vote Liberal.
Do you know which ridings had the highest voter turnout?
Gross! This means that only about 1 in 10 people up in Fort McMurray voted for Guy Boutilier, and yet he gets to continue representing the whole area.
Still, the old addage that people get the government they deserve holds true. I guess the next time I hear about the growth pressures this government has caused for Fort McMurray I will have a somewhat less sympathetic ear.
Well, this is interesting. Nearly 60% did not vote, and nearly 80% did not support the PCs at the ballot box.
If the Liberals, NDP and/or WAP are able to stir some emotion and confidence, the PCs... You complete the thought.
The other thing is that Alberta is molting through age and immigration.
Low voter turnout + a Tory establishment that has decided to actually work to mobilize their supporters (for the first time in a long time) = Monday night's results
Hm....I faxed for an absentee ballot at least 3 weeks prior to the vote, and I'm still waiting for it.
Sorry for contributing to the low numbers in Edmonton Centre.....
No, it means that 64% of a sample (21% of total) far more than big enough to be reflective of the total population voted for the PC party. In fact, it is more than likely that a higher proportion of PC voters stayed home simply because they assumed he was going to win.
This Liberal arguement that low turnout might have something to do with the losses likely means that the losses would be even worse if more people turned up.
Hey Dave, interesting info. I've posted the other end of the spectrum on my blog as well.
I agree, the low turnout is appalling.
Here is a different slant. Best info I can find is 941379 voters showed up on March 3. 45359 more than 2004.
PC increase 89632,Green up 20534.Liberals down 11487, NDP down 9821 and Alliance down 18951.
Very interesting voting pattern.
Perhaps a focus on the people that actually do vote would be a more useful excersise.
I found better info than anonymous above, but his numbers are basically right. About 60,000 more votes were cast this election than in 2004.
The problem is that Alberta's population has gone up substantially more than that. There were 250,000 more voters registered this time around--and given how crappy the voters' lists were, that means that there were even more new arrivals to Alberta. So it doesn't negate the concern over very low turnout.
In terms of number of votes, the PC vote went up about 17%, the Liberals lost 4% of their vote and the NDP lost 12% of theirs.
What's very interesting but hasn't been looked at closely is that all of the other right-wing parties lost a substantial number of votes. The Wildrose Alliance lost 20% of the 2004 Alberta Alliance vote. Support for the Social Credit Party, the Separation Party and the Alberta Party plummeted. All told, there were 30,000 fewer votes cast for right wing "alternative" parties this time around.
Interesting investigative work there, David. It would be interesting to see what the demographics for those low participation ridings are, and compare them with that of the voters. That info might give clues as to how to better reach people when planning door to door campaigns, what issues to target, the channels of communication to use, and whether or not there are actual impediments to voting, and how those could be overcome.
RC
I Didn't vote. Didn't care.
explaination here:
http://themsfightinwords.blogspot.com/2008/03/apathetic-and-proud-ofwhatever.html
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