Voter turnout review

With just a few hours left before the polls close, let's take a look back at my first post, which explored the topic of voter turnout on campus. I've corrected some of my earlier errors and I've created a few tables to show trends over the past decade or so. I've also divided the elections into three (highly subjective and detail-skimming) eras.


Era 1: Pres/VP ticket; 14-day campaign period

This era was generally characterized by higher voter turnout numbers.

* I define "Viable Slate" as a slate that received a substantial proportion of the total number of votes relative to the amount received by the winning slate. For example, in 2002, although Louizos/Kuzie ran against two other slates, they effectively ran unopposed, and you can see what happened to turnout in the next section.

I don't have data on numbers of slates for the 1997 election. One could research them at the Manitoban office.

Era 2: Pres/VP ticket; shortened campaign period

This era saw a drop in turnout, and a changing of the guard.


** I'm relying on memory of the number of slates that ran against Fletcher in 2000. Again, the Maniotban archives would help any interested readers find solid numbers.

To be clear, I do not attribute the drop in turnout to the shortening of the campaign period. Far more relevant is the increase in enrollment at the university, which primarily occured at the first-year level. Since first-year students are the least likely to be involved in or knowledgeable of the elections process, overall turnout fell. This is borne out when the election statistics from this era are reviewed: University1 voter turnout was typically lower than the campus average.


Era 3: Pres/4-VP ticket

This era has seen a drop in competition in elections.


It's not easy to find five people who will run together in an UMSU election. The results are displayed clearly.

Another aspect of this era is a change to the election regulations such that it is no longer necessary to have a polling booth in each faculty, college and residence. Thus, statistical data is no longer available that shows how students in a given unit voted. General inferences can be made; for example, voters in the Drake Building are probably mostly students of the Faculty of Management, but the Manitoban does not have data on individual polling stations in this era.