SDSG voter turnout down; not from lack of voting

(Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston, File)

SDSG – There were more people eligible to vote in Monday’s federal election in Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry, but roughly the same number of people came out to the polls.

Unofficial numbers from Elections Canada show there were 84,723 registered electors in SDSG and 53,258 cast ballots on Monday night and through other means, such as advance polls.

That’s a turnout rate of 62.9 per cent, which is slightly below the national average of 65.95 per cent. Also, it’s roughly four per cent lower than the 2015 turnout in SDSG.

Four years ago, roughly the same number of people – 53,300 – marked an X beside a candidate’s name or spoiled their ballot.

Since the pool of people who could vote was smaller in 2015 by about 6,000 compared to this year’s election, the voter turnout was higher at 67.2 per cent.

Conservative Eric Duncan kept the riding blue, winning Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry with 54.2 per cent of the vote.