The Windsor West electoral district had the absolute lowest turnout provincially in 2018, at 43.3 per cent. Neighbouring electoral district Windsor-Tecumseh also ranks among Ontario's lowest, as do electoral districts in Brampton, Mississauga, northwest pockets of Toronto (Humber River-Black Creek, York South-Weston) and northern Ontario (Kiiwetinoong, Timmins). You know, why doesn't somebody vote? Usually people who don't vote also don't answer surveys,' jokes Lydia Miljan, professor of political science at the University of Windsor. 'I felt that this is one instance where I can at least register my feelings about this by declining to vote,' the Port Hope resident says. The highest turnout was coincidentally in Erland's own electoral district, Northumberland–Peterborough South, at 64.6 per cent.ĭavid Erland has been deliberately not voting the traditional way for about a decade now, choosing to decline his ballot to protest Ontario's current electoral system. More than 10.2 million Ontarians were eligible to vote in the last election, in 2018, but just 56.67 per cent did (around 5.8 million voters).

It's just one of the reasons people don't cast a ballot, being highlighted ahead of the province's June 2 election. He insists no issue or policy promise would sway him to cast a vote for a party, until he sees a change to our electoral system. He feels his vote doesn't matter and the system causes a lack of representation. 'I realized that for as long as I continued to use our existing electoral system to cast my vote, I was giving that system my tacit approval,' said Erland, who lives in Port Hope, 100 kilometres east of Toronto.ĭidn't vote in the last Ontario election? Tell us whyĮrland calls himself a 'wannabe' voter. It's a valid option in Ontario elections (22,684 voters did it in 2018), though he has often confused poll workers, having to explain exactly what he's doing. It's his way of airing frustrations with our electoral system. When poll workers hand him a ballot, he hands it right back, choosing to decline his vote.

David Erland goes to the polls on election day, but doesn't go behind the screen to cast a ballot.

Who are we voting for in 2018