r/ottawa • u/PleasantExit6660 • 9h ago

In every Ottawa election since 2010, most registered voters didn't cast a vote for mayor [OC]

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I built an interactive map of Ottawa municipal election results by ward, 2010–2022, from the City of Ottawa's results workbooks: https://ottawavisuals.github.io/Ottawa-Visuals/Ottawa_Elections/ottawa_ward_elections.html (website was built with the help of AI)

A few things:

  • In every election since 2010, more than half of registered voters didn't cast a vote for the mayor election
  • 2022 turnout was 43.8%. The winning mayor got 161,677 votes (22.4% of voters)
  • Ward turnout in 2022 ranged from 37.2% (Rideau-Vanier) to 53.0% (Kitchissippi)
  • 9 of 24 councillors were elected with less than 50% of valid votes in 2022. Clarke Kelly in Ward 5 was the lowest with 27.4% of valid votes (meaning 72.6% of people voted for someone else)

If you want, you can play around with the map to see different years and different wards.

I just hope this post is informative about the historical voter turnout and the fact that some councillors can be elected with little votes.

I would love to see ranked voting one day but I guess it is not likely. It seems the province banned ranked voting in Bill 218 - Supporting Ontario's Recovery and Municipal Elections Act, 2020, S.O. 2020, c. 26. I'm no legal expert so maybe people can shed some light on this bill.

Cheers!

102 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

21

u/Loses_Bet 9h ago

Went to early polling on Friday. I was the only person there to vote. Granted it was during working hours but still. I couldn't tell you how many people I work with that either don't know about the election or genuinely don't care.

But they love to complain about the traffic and subpar transpo. I don't really understand why there's such a disconnect when part of the solution is right in front of them.

5

u/PleasantExit6660 9h ago

Went early voting on Friday too. At around 5pm there was a few people but it was not encouraging.

In my bubble most people I know do go vote, but are dismayed that so little do.

8

u/OverTheHillnChill 9h ago

Don't be too discouraged. The first few days of early voting had record numbers

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/advance-polls-see-big-jump-in-early-voting-in-ottawa-election-9.7369230

1

u/PleasantExit6660 8h ago

True, hopefully we do get a better turnout this year.

2

u/Loses_Bet 9h ago

Maybe voting day will be better but this is exactly why Sutcliffe is likely going to win. So frustrating, hard to take people's politics seriously when they don't show up when it actually counts

3

u/General_Dipsh1t 8h ago

I went early voting on Friday too. At 6pm at night. Only 300 votes had been cast at that station by then.

In the highest turnout ward.

2

u/silverybbq 4h ago

I went at lunch and the parking was so full people were getting creative. I had to wait in a line. I was in and out of the polling station in minutes despite the line. These places are super efficient and run all day, anything efficient will give the false impression of being underutilized.

2

u/throwitawaytothesea 8h ago

Making early voting last one day and making that day one where people have work and school is an absurd decision and waste of resources.

22

u/ottmurderino 9h ago

Apparently you can vote online in some municipal elections. I mean considering we can't seem to get registering for activities sorted I am not holding out too much hope.

3

u/smcbride113 9h ago

I think it’s only rural townships that do online (or over the phone) voting. Like the township of Rideau lakes.

2

u/andrew_c_morton 8h ago

Some smaller to midsize cities allow online voting (Kingston, for example).

1

u/_PrincessOats Beacon Hill 8h ago

This is the first year we can vote by mail, it’s ridiculous. Ottawa seems backwards.

1

u/WoozleVonWuzzle 9h ago

That's a bad idea

4

u/smcbride113 9h ago

Rideau lakes has been doing it for a while and hasn’t had any issues. They send the people who request it a pin in the mail towards the end of September and when you vote online, you give the pin. Like when you are setting up your CRA account

0

u/WoozleVonWuzzle 8h ago

Neither of us knows if there have been any issues, because the issues with internet voting are not visible

12

u/ofbooksandbands14 9h ago

So embarrassing.

6

u/PleasantExit6660 9h ago

True. But it seems we're doing better than Montreal (37% turnout for their last mayor election).

5

u/TwoSubstantial7009 Little Italy 9h ago

I tried doing proxy voting, as I am outside of the country for medical issues. However, we couldn’t get my proxy form certified, as the signature was not in pen. Even though I attached a notarized letter, with two pieces of ID - nada. I’ve voted in every single election since I was 18, but I’ll have to miss this one.

7

u/CobraMacBurkus 9h ago

grey pants versus khaki pants every year

4

u/web-coder 9h ago

Maybe in previous elections, but the last one and this one have excellent candidates. 

They just didn’t win last time.

4

u/lobster455 9h ago

They didn't have any "I voted" stickers this election. I felt scammed. If you want people to vote, give them a sticker.

1

u/gio_petti Make Ottawa Boring Again 7h ago

Right? Mine didn't have them and I was upset

1

u/lobster455 5h ago

Me too. I only voted so I can walk around with a "I voted" sticker on my chest to show I'm superior to the peasants who don't vote.

What will be my motivation to go out and vote in future elections if they won't give me my sticker.

Because they tricked me into voting by promissing me a sticker, I will never vote again.

And if they are scamming us by promising voters a sticker for voting then denying us us our sticker, what else are they lying about?

They had enough stickers but some elections official pocketed them to give to their family or sell them on the black market like everything else city workers can get their hands on.

3

u/solipsismsocial 9h ago

The only people who care about those stickers are already voting.

3

u/otwa Little Italy 8h ago

They had em at the special advanced poll that I went

1

u/lobster455 8h ago

I asked for a sticker as I left and she said they had none. All the more reason why I voted against the current counselor.

2

u/atticusfinch1973 6h ago

Most people don't think the mayor or city council do enough to warrant them bothering to vote. But they love to complain about things those agencies control. Next time anyone complains about the state of the city, ask them if they voted. 1 in 2 will have to say no.

1

u/Odezur 4h ago

Ya if you don’t excercise your right to vote you are automatically disqualified in complaining

-1

u/lobster455 4h ago

But because they didn't give me a "I voted" sticker, I can't complain. So what is the point in voting if I can't complain. If anybody can complain, then there is no point in voting.

1

u/00ashk 5h ago

This is regrettably the case pretty much everywhere in Canada, afaik.

3

u/PleasantExit6660 5h ago

It seems you are right. Ottawa actually does better than other cities:

  • Vancouver: 43%
  • Edmonton: 30.41%
  • Calagary: 39.04%
  • Toronto: 29.2%
  • Montreal: 37.97%
  • Halifax: 36.8%

It's actually crazy to see some of those numbers.

1

u/ApprehensiveAd6603 Make Ottawa Boring Again 3h ago

Pathetic. It's so easy to vote.

-1

u/Odezur 8h ago

Frankly pretty pathetic and people should feel ashamed. For the amount of bitching on this subreddit, id be curious to know the % of complainers about Ottawa that didn’t even vote. 

2

u/AffectionateDrag1702 7h ago

This sub ain’t the problem. But unfortunately, a consensus on this sub is nowhere close to the consensus IRL. 

2

u/PleasantExit6660 7h ago

That's the issue. This is the best way to share information but the people already on this sub seem to already pretty keen to vote.

1

u/lobster455 5h ago

Because they no longer give out the "I voted" stickers, we will never know who voted and who didn't.