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Council Supports Challinor’s Request For Low Voter Turnout Review By Province
Town of Milton Ward 2 Local Councillor John Challinor II received unanimous support from Milton Council for his request that the Province of Ontario and its key municipal partner organizations undertake a review of the health of Ontario’s democracy as a result of historic low voter turnout during municipal and provincial elections held in 2022.
The Town of Milton experienced low voter turnout of less than 29 percent and 301 of 444 Ontario municipalities reported low voter turnout of less than 36 percent on October 24, 2022. The Province of Ontario had a historic low voter turnout of 43.53 percent on June 2, 2022.
Mr. Challinor’s motion was seconded by Town of Milton Ward 1 Regional Councillor Colin Best, who is also President of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), one of the six municipal organizations that has been requested to participate in the provincial review.
In his motion, Mr. Challinor specifically requested that Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his government lead a process involving key municipal partner organizations that reviews the health of the province’s democracy with the objective of increasing voter turnout in future municipal, provincial and federal elections in Ontario.
“Low voter turnout is a serious threat to representative democratic government,” explained Mr. Challinor. “Voting is a civic duty and responsibility because it affords a basic human right, it protects democracy, it shapes an economy, it defines government service delivery and it holds elected representatives and government employees accountable.” CR