For the first time ever, fewer than half of Ontario voters bothered to cast a ballot.
According to preliminary estimates, 49.02 per cent of voters showed up at the polls on October 6th, making Ontario's 40th general election also its worst for voter participation. This was the lowest turnout since the first provincial election in August of 1867.
2007's election, until now Ontario's worst for voter turnout at 52%, broke a record set in 1923.
The result comes despite attempts to make voting easier, like the increased use of advance polls and measures to encourage voting by students.
Voter turnout in Ontario general elections, 1867-2011
Source: Elections Ontario
Broken down regionally, rural areas in Huron, Bruce, Grey and Lambton had the highest turnout, along with rural/suburban parts of Hamilton/Niagara and Peterborough. The lowest turnout was in Toronto's 905 suburbs: Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan and Markham. Ontario's highest turnout was in Huron-Bruce, and the lowest in Mississauga-Brampton South.
Turnout by riding, October 11, 2011
"They have increased the number of advance polls that appear on campuses. Almost every college or university campus had an advance poll. As well, they allowed students to vote by mail-in ballot," explains Sandy Hudson of the Canadian Federation of Students.
"For a lot of students, it will be their first time voting. They need to navigate getting on the registration list and how to navigate voting in their home riding."
Turnout in federal elections has also been falling, from nearly 80% in the early 1960s to about 60% recently.
Expanded times to vote at advance polls have led to 38% more voters using them than in 2007, globalnews.ca reported on Tuesday. Advance polls seem most popular in rural areas: In Simcoe-Grey, over 10,000 people voted at the advance poll.
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