Watch: Apathy Is Boring’s Youri Cormier talks about voter turnout in Quebec
MONTREAL – Quebecers headed out to vote on Monday after what was called one of the dirtiest – and possibly most exciting – provincial election campaign in decades.
But many were wondering whether the excitement around the election campaign would translate into high voter turnout.
Take a look at the average voter turnout in the 2014 Quebec election in the table below:
| Advance polls | 11:30 a.m. | 3:30 p.m. | 5:30 p.m. | Total | |
| Average voter turnout in 2014 | 19.27% | 27.29% | 41.71% | 52.81% | 71.44% |
Turnout was down from the last provincial election – but by only 3.16 per cent.
Take a look at the average voter turnout in the 2012 Quebec election in the table below:
| Advance polls | 11:30 a.m. | 3:00 p.m. | 5:30 p.m. | Total | |
| Average voter turnout in 2012 | 16.61% | 25.30% | 40.73% | 53% | 74.60% |
The lowest voter turnout as of 5:30 p.m. on Monday was in the following ten ridings:
Bourassa-Sauvé: 45.38%
Chapleau: 45.65%
Duplessis: 41.81%
Hochelaga-Maisonneuve: 43.13%
La Pinière: 45.07%
Laval-des-Rapides: 43.65%
Pontiac: 45.52%
Ungava: 20.74%
Saint-Jean: 45.57%
Viau: 45.48%
“It’s always dangerous to speculate on how many people are going to turn up,” the executive director for Apathy Is Boring, Youri Cormier told Global News on Monday morning.
Although participation in the advanced polls was relatively high, he said that he doesn’t believe this means it will be high on voting day.
“For the past few years, people have been going to advanced polls more than they have in the past, but it’s not necessarily a good indicator of how many people will vote,” he noted.
Generally speaking, voter turnout in Quebec over the past 20 years has seen a steady decline.
1994: 81.58%
2003: 78.32%
2007: 71.23%
2008: 57.43%
2012: 74.60%
2014:
Cormier suggested one reason for low voter turnout could be an unmotivated youth vote. Participation amongst younger voters has generally been nosediving all over the world for the past 40 years, and Quebec is no exception.
“In Quebec, we reached the lowest voter turnout for youth in 2008,” he said.
“It went up in 2012 because of ‘Maple Spring,’ where the protests mobilized people . . . but I don’t expect we’ll hit the same level as 2012.”
According to the Directeur General des Elections du Quebec, voter turnout in 2012 was the highest of the 2000s: at 74.6 per cent, it was 30 per cent higher than in 2008 and three Quebec ridings saw voter turnout of 80 per cent or more.
READ MORE: 5 ridings with highest voter turnout in Quebec 2012 elections
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