By Jack Clark

Election

Lacklustre voting turnout in civic election

Oct 17, 2022 | 4:34 PM

PRINCE GEORGE- Despite long lineups at advance polls around the city, there was just a slight increase in the number of people who turned out to the polls this civic election.

“Some of the footage and the photos that were coming out was, wow, this is exciting. You could see there were lineups at the advanced polls,” Said Garth Frizzel. “It didn’t turn out quite as dramatically as we had expected.”

A Thought shared by many, as voter turnout was just 26.2 per cent, up slightly from 2018 in Prince George.

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The Average turnout Across the province Was 29.2 per cent, Again lacklustre.

Experts believe it could be because civic elections are so unlike other elections.

“There are no parties. So if people don’t know as much as they should know about what’s happening, whether it’s federal or provincial, they can just pick a party they usually vote for,” said Chris Beach, a political science instructor at CNC. “That might be part of it.”

With such a variety of Candidates for Council and Mayor this Past election, The Unknown could have pushed people away.

“When we were a smaller municipality, it was probably easier to get to know every single person on the polls. Even if there were 26, it might be someone that you met regularly. Now we’re up to 82,000 people,” said Frizzell. “It’ll get more and more challenging.”

With every challenge, solutions are constantly bouncing around.

“In other jurisdictions, like in Australia, there’s financial penalties, like a tax, if you don’t vote. I mean, that’s one option right there to look at something like that,” Said Beach.

They say other methods to encourage more people to vote to include electronic voting, which is being conducted in major leadership races across the province.