Suchergebnisse

In Canada, voter turnout at the municipal level is lower than in elections at other levels of government. The reasons that might explain this low turnout are still unclear. The research tests 15 hypotheses to explain municipal electoral participation based on the case of the province of Quebec (mayoral elections in 2005 and 2009 in all municipalities in the province, n = 949). The results show that four factors explain voter turnout and its variations: the size of the electorate, the presence of elderly voters, the margin of victory, and the number of candidates. These results improve our understanding of the cost of voting at the municipal level and they stress the need for conducting additional monographic investigations on this topic in Canada, especially in larger municipalities where voter turnout is often lower. Adapted from the source document.