Turnout in Older Age and Measures to Facilitate Participation in Canada

• In Event: Fostering Voter Turnout

Abstract

Voting is costly for older seniors. Limited mobility, social isolation and impaired health all explain why we often find declining turnout in older age. But measures to facilitate turnout — such as mobile polling stations and voting booths located in seniors’ residences — should decrease these costs of voting, increase turnout in older age groups, and potentially increase electoral support for parties more popular among older citizens. In this paper, I test these expectations using an original dataset containing information on the location of polling stations in the last six Canadian federal elections. This paper contributes to research on the costs of voting and to our understanding of the impacts that measures facilitating participation can have on turnout among older seniors.

Author

• Florence Vallée-Dubois, Université de Montréal