Who Has School Spirit? Explaining Voter Participation in School Board Elections

In: Canadian journal of political science: CJPS = Revue canadienne de science politique, Band 52, Heft 4, S. 923-936

Abstract

AbstractThis research note examines the correlates of turnout in Canadian school board elections. Using individual-level data from the Canadian Municipal Election Study, we find that gender, education, left-wing ideology, Conservative partisanship and parental status were associated with participation in Calgary's 2017 public school board elections. Some of these patterns relate to the specific details of Calgary's 2017 election; others, we suggest, may be characteristic of school board elections more generally. We relate our findings to the literature on ballot roll-off and low-turnout elections.