How to vote in the Ontario election June 2
Administrator | Jun 01, 2022 | Comments 10
Bay of Quinte provincial election candidates, from left, Todd Smith for the Progressive Conservative Party; Alison Kelly, New Democratic Party, Emilie Leneveu, Liberal Party, Erica Charlton, Green Party, Rob Collins with the New Blue Party and Noah Wales, the Ontario Party.
As the provincial election day dawns, polls suggest the Conservatives led by Doug Ford (and represented here in the Bay of Quinte riding by incumbent Todd Smith) will win at least 63 seats for a second majority government.
Polls also indicate neither the New Democratic Party (NDP) (leader Andrea Horwath) nor the Liberals (leader Steven Del Duca) have become the clear second-place challenger.
On June 2, in-person voting is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to anyone who is 18 years or older, a Canadian citizen and a resident of Ontario.
In the Bay of Quinte region there are six candidate names on the ballot:
Todd Smith for the Progressive Conservative Party; Alison Kelly, New Democratic Party, Emilie Leneveu, Liberal Party, Erica Charlton, Green Party, Rob Collins with the New Blue Party and Noah Wales is representing the Ontario Party.
You do not need a voter’s information card to cast your ballot on Thursday; however, if you weren’t sent one, your name might not be on the voters list when you arrive to cast your ballot and you will need to show one piece of identification that displays your name and current residential address.
When you arrive, you will be asked to show your identification and an Elections Ontario official will confirm you are on the voters list, or add you to the list. You will be presented with a ballot and directed to go behind a voting privacy screen to mark your ballot. To vote for your chosen candidate, mark an X in the circle beside their name.
If you make a mistake, return the ballot to an election official who will cancel the ballot and re-issue a new one. Your cancelled ballot will be marked as such and will not be placed into the ballot box.
You can also formally decline your right to vote. To do so, you must tell the election official out loud that you are declining your right to vote when they hand you a ballot. The official will mark “declined” on the back on the ballot and place it in an envelope for declined ballots.
Masks will not be required while voting, though they, and hand sanitizer will be available. Voters will also not be required to provide COVID-19 vaccination status. Voters will be asked to maintain physical distance while in line and officials will sit behind plexiglass.
Nearly 10 per cent of Ontario’s eligible voters cast their ballots in the 10-day period for advanced polls. The 1,066,545 votes at 9.92 per cent compares to 698,609 ballots cast, or 6.8 per cent of voters in the 2018 provincial election.
The deadline to vote by mail was May 27 and completed kits must be received by 6 p.m. June 2 to be counted. About 126,135 requests were made for mail-in ballots.
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There needs to be some realization of the popularity of Mr. Ford. He swept through the GTA of which not long ago were Liberal strongholds.
Dave – I appreciate the conversation, but I don’t believe you have interpreted my post correctly. At no time did I say that proportional representation would have increased voter turnout – what I was trying to explain is that the low voter turnout was a result of a system (first past the post) that voters no longer trusted nor respected – I gave PR as an example of another system that might give a better representation of what voters wanted. The point that I was making is that the current system is not attracting interest – the low turnout tells us that. Politicians would like us to believe that it is due to voter apathy – but where did that apathy come? I believe the politicians are to blame for it.
Back in the early 70’s the voter turnout in Ontario was over 70% – since then it has steadily fallen. No doubt voters can get lazy, but mainly the lack of interest has to fall onto those who are elected. In the Ontario election of 2018 the Conservatives ran on a campaign with NO platform – but Buck-A-Beer caught the public’s attention – hard to believe. In the election of 2022, the Conservative run on their budget – but even that is still unapproved by the legislature – but license plate rebates was the attraction this time. Yet somehow they get elected based on nothing – the public are to blame for allowing it, but they are not to blame for the politicians who have nothing to offer, except glitter and trinkets.
Another good reason for low voter turnout is the fact that it was a by gone conclusion that Doug would win a majority and the majority of residents were satisfied with that given his good leadership. The opposition parties offered nothing in way of positive change.
Dennis, are you implying that if proportional representation was used, voter turnout would have been higher? I highly doubt it. You’re conflating the system used with voter apathy. In my mind, they are separate issues. Both important, but separate.
We need to understand what really took place in this election – no party increased their vote count from the last election. While the Conservatives increased their seat count by 9, the fact is they received 433,561 fewer votes in 2022 than they did in 2018. No party “got out the vote” – and that is my concern! How can a party increase their power when fewer people voted for them? Not a good situation for anyone!
Like it or not, more Ontarians are feeling disenfranchised from our democracy. Why? I believe in part it is due to the “first past the post” method of deciding who wins. To think that receiving only 40% of the vote is worthy of a majority, when 60% did not want that party, is simply wrong and it also discourages people from voting. How often have we heard or maybe even said, “what’s the point of voting, my vote doesn’t count?
This isn’t about being happy with who won – instead it is about having 57% of voters not bothering to vote because none of the parties related to them – not even these so called winners because they too failed in getting out the vote. You can’t argue against the facts – 40% of 43% = 17%. This is the percentage of people who have decided the outcome of this election. We all should be wanting a better system of voting – our democracy depends on it.
Voter turnout increases when there is dissatisfaction with the government of the day. The narrative forming around the idea that only 17% of Ontarians support the PCs is disingenuous at best. The other parties need to take a hard look at why they were utterly incapable of “getting out the vote” rather than recasting the results as quasi-illegitimate.
Other democratic countries (New Zealand for example) have a different method of determining the number of seats – it is determined by the proportion of votes a party receives. Only in the most backward of democracies would 40% of the vote mean you have a majority. Since when did 40% of anything mean a majority?
The fact is 60% voted against this current government and they still get to govern – doesn’t make a lot of sense. does it?
Still a resounding majority from those of us that choose to vote! It was no contest and I reasonably suspect most are pleased with Mr Ford or otherwise more voters would have tuurned out to turf him. “Get it Done”!
I congratulate those who put their name on the ballot – win or lose they did democracy proud. The last stats I heard about the voter turnout was that only 43% of the total number of voters cast a ballot – of that 43%, – 40% supported the current government – meaning that the current government received 17% support from the total number of Ontario voters!! This is what we now call democracy. Don’t blame those who ran for a position – blame all those millions that sat at home and found excuses not to vote.
Given what is going on in Ukraine right now and thinking about what our parents and grandparents fought for, I think those who found an excuse not to vote should be ashamed of themselves.
Good thing is Doug stays in power. Sad thing is less than 40% of the Province voted.