Despite a concerted effort by the City of Burnaby to engage voters, voter turnout dropped again in the 2011 municipal election.
While the actual number of votes increased, so did the number of registered voters in Burnaby.
In 2011, 23.29 per cent of registered voters cast their ballots. In 2008, 23.49 per cent of registered voters showed up at the polls.
While the decrease is slight - only 0.2 per cent - it was unexpected as advance voter turnout looked to be up this year.
In all, 34,035 voters turned up at the city's 37 polling stations this year, out of 146,123 registered voters, according to the City of Burnaby's election results webpage.
Voter turnout at Burnaby's advance polls increased slightly, by 0.68 per cent from last year.
Advance voting was held on Nov. 5, 8, 9 and 16, and in all, 3,765 people cast their ballots, for a total of 2.57 per cent of the overall voting.
During the past three elections, advance polling numbers have been increasing by about 1,000 every election.
In the 2008 election, 2,641 people voted in advance of election day, totalling 1.89 per cent of all votes.
In 2005, 1,599 advance votes were cast. Burnaby's deputy chief election officer Lynne Axford told the NOW the week before the election that it's hard to know why the numbers are rising.
"We've done a little bit more advertising this year than we have in the past," Axford said. "We've sent a flyer out to every household in Burnaby with the information (on advance polling and all the candidates). I think that's helped."
But higher numbers at the advance polls don't always translate to greater overall voter turnout.
Voter turnout in municipal elections is often notoriously low. Voter turnout was 25.57 per cent in Burnaby in 2005 and 33.38 per cent in 2002.
Voter turnout was much the same throughout B.C. Burnaby's turnout was only slightly lower than the provincial average, which was 29.51 per cent, according to CivicInfo B.C.'s initial calculations.
In 2011, the municipality with the lowest voter turnout was Langford, with 13.98 per cent, while the highest turnout in the province was on Bowen Island, at 83.77 per cent.
Those calculations are based on registered voter numbers from Elections B.C. for each municipality.
The percentages may change when all the amounts of registered voters from municipalities are available, and once preliminary election results are certified.
CivicInfo B.C. is an informational website for B.C.'s local government sector. More information can be found at www.civicinfo. bc.ca.
On Monday, the chief electoral officer for Elections B.C., Keith Archer, released his report on recommendations for legislative change in B.C. elections.
Archer's report recommends that voter registration be conducted more efficiently and effectively; that youth voters be encouraged to participate in elections by allowing provisional voter registration at 16 (with the voting age remaining 18); and considering the possibility of implementing Internet voting.
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