New voting rules are being blamed in part for the low number of Canadians who went to the polls in Tuesday's election. Only 59.1 per cent of those eligible voted -- possibly the lowest turnout in the country's history.
The new rules, which require voters to produce valid identification with an address, made it difficult for some students, aboriginals and rural Canadians to cast their ballots.
The federal Election Act, amended two years ago, requires everyone voting to produce government-issued identification that includes a street name and house number.
But about one million Canadians living in rural areas don't have an address with a street name and number, and for some Aboriginals their only address is the name of their reserve.
Post-secondary students across the country have complained about their difficulty in voting. They can vote in the riding they study in, but considering it was an October election, many of them would not have an up-to-date bill or ID marked with their current address.
Mark Coffin, of the Dalhousie University student union in Halifax, said that more than half of the students who came to a university polling station were turned away.
"The rules are too strict for students who are very transient," he told The Canadian Press. "It's a shame for democracy when you neglect a substantial portion of that voter base in a federal election . . . The current system definitely needs to be looked at."
David Rutherford of Elections Canada said that officials do not know yet how many Canadians could not vote because of the new rules. Anyone who had trouble voting is urged to call the agency.
Not just the new rules
Although a low turnout generally helps the incumbent, Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed disappointment with the all-time low.
"We're obviously disappointed by voter turnout. It's low and been getting lower for some time now," Harper said Wednesday.
Pollster Peter Donolo of the Strategic Counsel said that many of the parties, but particularly the Liberals, had supporters who decided not to vote this time around.
"That low turnout plummeted even further because too many Liberal voters, 850,000 of them, sat this one out," he told CTV News.
Some political scientists say that the race itself may have turned people off from voting.
Jon Pammett, a Carleton University political scientist, told The Canadian Press that some voters may have thought there wasn't enough competition in the election to make it worthwhile to vote.
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