The Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) experienced their lowest voter turnout since before their 1999 election, the first for which records are available, in their territorial election Oct. 3.
Preliminary data showed that only 47.8 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, with only 34 per cent of eligible voters in Yellowknife going to the polls, according to HQ Yellowknife. That represents a drop of almost 20 per cent from four years ago.
The number of voters has been decreasing only slightly with 70 per cent voting in 1999, 69 per cent in 2003 and 67 per cent in 2007, according to NWT Elections.
"This runs right across the country, this isn't just in this riding and it's not just in the Northwest Territories,” Wendy Bisaro, a territorial politician in the Northwest Territories, told HQ Yellowknife. “Many people don't feel an ownership of voting and they also feel that it's futile and that it's hopeless. So it's kind of like 'well, why should I go, my vote doesn't mean anything.”
Braden Redshaw, a Carleton student from Yellowknife, said people in the N.W.T. don’t feel a need to be involved in politics.
“I know I didn’t feel any strong need to look at what the parties offered,” Redshaw said. “A lot of people just aren’t politically inclined.”
Voters had to prove their residency with two pieces of identification, according to the CBC, which forced many people to leave the voting station without casting a ballot.
“People are not going to go back after digging around, running around, to get this, that, and go back and give them what they require,” Roy Goose, a resident of the Northwest Territories, told the CBC.
The drop of voters in recent elections is worrying to those who are politically active in the region.
“What I learned is that clearly we didn't inspire people to have faith that the democratic process works. The lower voter turnout for me is the single message that I have to kind of look at when I run in four years,” Arlene Hache, a defeated candidate, told HQ Yellowknife.