Society

One indicator commonly used to measure social cohesion is the proportion of individuals who participate in the political system. Determining the underlying influences of declining voter turnout rates can be difficult: A low turnout may be due to disillusionment or indifference, or even complacent satisfaction with the way the country is being governed. Conversely, a high turnout rate may reflect compulsory voting laws (as in Australia and Belgium) or coercion.

Voter turnout therefore may not always be a reliable indicator of social cohesion. The vast majority of analysts, however, consider a high voter turnout to be preferable to a low turnout because it means that the government will more likely reflect the interests of a larger share of the population.

Low voter turnout implies that the democratic system may not be reflecting the interests of all citizens. Voter turnout tends to be lowest among youth, those who are less educated, and those in lower income brackets.

Voter turnout rates—the percentage of eligible voters who cast ballots in national elections—vary markedly across the peer countries, from a high of 86 per cent in Belgium, to a low of 36 per cent in Switzerland. Canada rates a “C” on this indicator, with 54 per cent of Canadians voting in the 2008 election. Only Switzerland has a lower voter turnout.

Fewer Canadians are voting now than in the past. Voter turnout declined to a historic low—54 per cent—in Canada during the 2008 federal election. A survey conducted for Elections Canada found that 57 per cent of those who didn’t vote cited reasons termed “everyday situations”— being on holiday, being too busy, family obligations, or work schedules.¹ Fifty-four per cent of them said they would vote if they could do so online. In response, Elections Canada has said that it will push for legislative changes that would allow the implementation of online registration of voters, and it wants parliamentary approval to conduct a test-run of the electronic process in a by-election by 2013.² An earlier study for Elections Canada noted that the decline in voter turnout in recent elections is mainly attributable to lower participation of young people, and that “it is part of a demographic trend that shows every sign of continuing well into the future.”³ Just over one in five of those eligible to vote for the first time in 2000 chose to participate. Younger age groups were more likely to cite “lack of interest” than older age groups as a reason for not voting.

The report offers a number of ways to increase voter participation among young people, including:

• making voting easier and more meaningful for first-time voters
• making politics more relevant to the young
• providing them with the tools they need to understand its relevance to their own lives
• engaging them more directly in the political process

But there is a caveat. The report concludes that, “without fundamental changes in the way in which politics is conducted in Canada, these are goals that could well remain out of reach for some time.”⁴

Like Canada, most of the peer countries have also experienced a decline in voter turnout.

Use the pull-down menu to compare the change in Canada’s voter turnout with that of its peers.

Canada has not managed to improve its relative grade. It earned a “C” grade in the 1990s and 2000s.

The Australian system of compulsory voter attendance began in 1924. Voters are obliged to attend the polling station, but they can leave without voting after ticking their names off, which partly explains why the Australian voting rate is less than 100 per cent. Non-attendees face a fine of AU$20.⁵

Critics of the system question whether it is “democratic” to use financial or social sanctions to compel citizens to turn out to vote.⁶ Supporters maintain that compulsory voting removes socio-economic status turnout biases. They also argue that, in a nation like Australia built on immigration, compulsory voting is a symbol of “the integration of new arrivals into the Australian way of doing things.”⁷

The very low Swiss voter turnout rate (40 per cent) reflects citizen perception that voting has little impact on how the country is run, according to political scientist Mark Franklin.⁸ Switzerland’s administration is highly decentralized, and the federal government has limited powers. The government invariably consists of a coalition of parties, and the serious issues are placed before the population in referendums.

Voter fatigue is another reason cited for low Swiss voter turnout—it is not unusual for a Swiss citizen to be asked to go to the polls as many as 10 times in a single year for a variety of national and local elections, as well as referendums.⁹

¹ Elections Canada, Report on the Evaluations of 40th General Election (Ottawa: Author, 2009), p. 14, [online, cited August 31, 2009].

² The Canadian Press, “Elections Canada Advocates Online Voting to Increase Turnout,” June 27, 2009, [online, cited August 31, 2009].

³ Jon H. Pammett and Lawrence LeDuc, “Confronting the Problem of Declining Voter Turnout Among Youth,” Electoral Insight, July 2003 [online, cited August 31, 2009]

⁴ Jon H. Pammett and Lawrence LeDuc, “Confronting the Problem of Declining Voter Turnout Among Youth,” Electoral Insight, July 2003 [online, cited August 31, 2009]

⁵ Australian Electoral Commission, “Voting Within Australia—Frequently Asked Questions: What Happens if I Do Not Vote?” Australian Electoral Commission [online, cited August 31, 2009].

⁶ Simon Jackman, “Compulsory Voting,” International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (Elsevier: Oxford, U.K., 2001).

⁷ Elliot Franka, “Compulsory Voting Around the World,” The Guardian, July 4, 2005 [online, cited August 31, 2009].

⁸ Mark N Franklin, “Electoral Engineering and Cross National Turnout Differences,” British Journal of Political Science, 29, 1 (January 1999), p. 211.

⁹ Shaun Major, “To Vote or Not to Vote? Compulsory Voting in Australia,” Discussion paper, Western Australian Electoral Commission, 1995, p. 23.

See discussions on other indicators
Jobless Youth	Confidence in Parliament
Disabled Income	Homicides
Elderly Poverty	Burglaries
Child Poverty	Assaults
Working-age Poverty	Life Satisfaction
Income Inequality	Acceptance of Diversity
Intergenerational Income Mobility	Social Isolation
Gender Income Gap	Suicides
Voter Turnout