Municipal elections tend to have lower turnouts, says U of Windsor professor

The voter turnout in Windsor at Monday's municipal election was one of the lowest. Unofficial results say only 34.73 per cent of the eligible voters cast a ballot.

"I was working. I had to work," said Robin Chang, who was one of those who didn't vote. Reasons given by others included having a busy day, not knowing it was voting day and apathy.

University of Windsor political science professor Lydia Miljan said low voter turnouts tend to indicate there are no burning issues drawing people to the polls.

Miljan said younger voters tend not to vote, as with immigrants.

However, Samar al-Hamami who immigrated in 2012, said she saw quite a few immigrants voting when she went to an advance poll last week.

"It's very important for me because you know as an immigrant, I need to have somebody represent us or to represent our needs," said al-Hamami.

Miljan says there is no scientific reason for low voter turnouts at municipal races. However, she said the participation increases for provincial and federal races.

"Even though municipal governments are the closest to the people, we tend to have the lowest voter turnout across the country when it comes to municipal races as opposed to federal or provincial races," said Miljan.