[LINK] "Ontario’s rising voter turnout bucks 24-year trend"

[rfmcdonald]

Last night I shared speculations that lower-than-expected turnout in the advance polls signalled even lower turnout in the regular elections. Global News' Patrick Cain and Erica Vella shared the news--with plenty of infographics!--that voter turnout has increased, and this increase is responsible for many of the noteworthy victories.

Ontario voter turnout, which had fallen steadily for five provincial elections in a row, reversed a generation-long trend yesterday and rose above 50 per cent.

Before last night, turnout in Ontario elections had fallen steadily since Bob Rae’s upset victory in 1990. Five elections in a row saw smaller and smaller turnout, and elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011 each set a new Ontario record for low turnout.

Unofficial results say voter turnout for Ontario’s 2014 elections was 52.1 per cent. That is 3.9 percentage points higher than the 2011 elections, which brought out the lowest voter turnout Ontario has ever seen, with 48.2 per cent.

Low voter turnout in this year’s advance polls led some to predict a fourth record low turnout in this election, but that turned out not to be the case.

The NDP met some setbacks in the 416 area code last night, losing Davenport, Trinity-Spadina and Beaches-East York, barely scraping by in Parkdale-High Park, and losing thousands of votes in stronghold Toronto-Danforth, once represented federally by Jack Layton.

All these ridings saw sharply higher turnout yesterday than they did in 2011. Trinity-Spadina, where Liberal Han Dong defeated long-time incumbent NDP MPP Rosario Marchese, saw a 23 per cent increase in voter turnout, the highest in the province.