Why Do Municipal Electors Not Vote?(Report‪)‬

Abstract Voter turnout in Canada has declined in the last several decades and is now among the lowest in the western world. In this paper, we examine, through telephone surveys, the reasons why electors did not exercise their right to vote at the municipal level. When non-voters were asked why they did not vote, the most frequent reason was lack of information about candidates and the poor quality of the candidates. The person most likely to vote is a senior, upper income, born outside Canada, owning their own home, and politically and community involved. These results are not dissimilar to those in a recent survey of federal electors.