Voters across the Lakeland hit the polls for the 2017 municipal election, with many municipalities seeing a slight increase from the last time around.
Sixteen per cent of eligible voters came out to take part in the City of Cold Lake 2017 municipal election. Broken down, that's 1,814 of the 11,170 eligible voters.
This number is up slightly from the 2013 election, when the city saw 11 per cent take to the polls.
CAO Kevin Nagoya explained why the previous elections, 2010 with 27.5 per cent, 2007 with 27 per cent, and 2004 with 42 per cent, saw a much higher turnout.
“The big difference in the 2004, 2007, and 2010 elections is the mayors were racing in that one versus just city councillors,” he said. “In 2013, there was only one additional city councillor running. It was all of the incumbents plus one.”
This could explain the decrease over the years, however the 16 per cent the city saw this election was not as good as they had hoped.
“We always like to see as many people out to the polls as possible,” Nagoya expressed.
In order to see a decent turnout, the city does a “very extensive marketing campaign,” encouraging voters to take to the polls and cast their ballots on election day.
Much like Cold Lake, the MD of Bonnyville also saw an increase in the number of voters at this year's election.
Although the numbers are still considered unofficial, the MD saw a 37 per cent turnout out of the approximate 9,200 eligible voters.
“That's better than the 22 to 23 per cent we had at the last election, which is great,” explained CAO of the MD Chris Cambridge.
“That's better than the 22 to 23 per cent we had at the last election, which is great,” explained CAO of the MD Chris Cambridge.
In total, there were 6,642 ballots cast, however, that number can be misleading, Cambridge explained.
“Not everybody voted for reeve, and some people didn't vote for their ward councillor,” he said, adding there were 3,411 votes cast for reeve.
In Ward 1, they saw a 50 per cent turnout with 650 votes, an increase from 2013's 435.
Ward 2 also saw an increase in voter turnout, with 747 eligible voters taking to the polls. This number is up 20 per cent from the last election where 620 voters came out.
The ward that saw one of the biggest jumps was Ward 4, which went from 206 voters in 2013 to over 655.
“We had to add more ballots. We always have extras printed, but it got so busy in Ward 4, more than the initial allotment that had to go out,” Cambridge expressed. “That was a good race that we had in Ward 4.”
With 538 Ward 5 residents taking to the polls, this ward also saw an increase from the previous election. In 2013, about 230 cast a ballot.
Up by over 200 voters was Ward 6. In 2013, about 400 residents voted, while over 630 made it to the polls for this election.
“There were some great tight races, which was nice to see. In Ward 6, we had six candidates, and we still had two within five votes of each other,” said Cambridge.
He has attributed the increase in turnout at the polls to residents just becoming more aware of some of the issues within the MD, and the fact that there were two councillors who stepped down from their seats.
“There are always things that we can do better, but there aren't any huge glaring issues in the MD. I know there are issues over theft and crime, but there aren't a lot of other burning questions that were apparent,” he said. “I think because there were so many retirements this time around, it actually made more of a race. Some people may have liked the councillor who retired… without an incumbent, more people get into the race and look to be successful.”
In the Town of Bonnyville. There were 4,969 eligible voters. Of those, 923 cast their ballots on election day for a total turnout of 18.6 per cent.
“The turnout was very close to what it was in the last election,” expressed town assistant CAO Bill Rogers.
In 2013, there were 5,252 eligible voters in the town, with a turnout of 19 per cent.
“In an ideal world, we would like to see 100 per cent of eligible voters come out to vote,” Rogers said, adding the municipality does everything they can to make that happen.
One thing the town has noticed over the years is voter consistency.
“What we seem to be finding in the last couple of elections is the same people seem to be coming out,” he added.
Melody Kwiatkowski, CAO for the Village of Glendon, said the turnout for this year's municipal election was slightly lower than that of 2013.
“We had 166 eligible voters. Last election, in 2013, it was 185,” she said, adding they had approximately 40 per cent of those eligible to vote come out this year.
“We always like to see better. We would like to see 100 per cent, but that's not always feasible. When we figured it out, we were at about 40 per cent of eligible voters, but that's according to the census numbers,” she added. “It's not a bad turnout, but we would like to see it much higher.”
