8% of voters say they cast ballot for first time this election: Ipsos

As Canadians continue to cast their ballots in Monday’s federal election, early exit polling numbers released by Ipsos suggest that for eight per cent of voters, it was their first time.

According to exit polling conducted by Ipsos exclusively for Global News, of 4,768 voters surveyed ahead of polls closing on Monday, eight per cent of respondents said this was the first time they had ever voted in a federal election. Conversely, 91 per cent said it was not the first time they had cast a ballot.

One per cent of respondents said they were not sure if this was their first time.

These early numbers collected on Monday suggest double the amount of first-time voters have turned out to vote this federal election than in 2015.

During the last federal election, only four per cent of people surveyed during the same time period said it was the first time they had voted in a federal election, while 96 per cent said it was not the first time they had cast their ballot.

Ipsos found that nine per cent of male voters were new, and eight per cent of female voters were new to the polls — something officials at Ipsos said represented no major statistical difference.

However, in 2015, women made up the larger block of first time voters at five per cent. Only two per cent were men.

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On Monday, electors between the ages of 18 and 34 made up the largest block of first time voters at 23 per cent, those between 35 and 54 years old made up four per cent of the first-time vote and only one per cent of first time voters were 55 years old or older, according to Ipsos.

Numbers collected during the same time period in 2015 found 28 per cent were between the ages of 18 and 34, four per cent were between the ages of 35 and 54 and one per cent were 55 years old or older.

Exclusive Global News Ipsos polls are protected by copyright. The information and/or data may only be rebroadcast or republished with full and proper credit and attribution to “Global News Ipsos.” This poll was conducted on Election Day. For this survey, in total a sample of n = 4,768 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 1.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians been polled.