{"id":948618,"date":"2026-10-27T21:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T21:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/948618\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T21:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T21:54:08","slug":"2026-election-draws-ottawas-lowest-voter-turnout-in-23-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/948618\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 election draws Ottawa&#8217;s lowest voter turnout in 23 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Ottawa saw its lowest voter turnout in 23 years in the 2026 municipal election, with just over 36 per cent of eligible voters casting a ballot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">According to <a class=\"link-_o8iA html-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/app06.ottawa.ca\/election\/2026_en.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">unofficial polling results<\/a> from the city, of 868,248 eligible electors, only 314,393 voted Monday. The numbers make for the second-lowest voter turnout in the city since amalgamation on Jan. 1, 2001. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Ottawa&#8217;s lowest post-amalgamation voter turnout was 33 per cent in 2003.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">In comparison, 2022&#8217;s municipal election saw voter turnout of 43.79 per cent, with 316,254 ballots cast. There were 722,227 eligible electors that year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">The final tally this year tells a different story than <a class=\"link-_o8iA html-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/ottawa\/advance-polls-see-big-jump-in-early-voting-in-ottawa-election-9.7369230\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the record-high turnout observed at advance polls<\/a>.\u00a0A total of 86,592 people cast ballots over four special advance voting days held Oct. 1-4, and on the final advance voting day on Oct. 16.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;More or less predetermined&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Political science expert Daniel Stockemer says voter interest may have been subdued because early polling numbers showed Mayor Mark Sutcliffe with a significant lead, and there were only two wards with no incumbent this election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">&#8220;It was more or less predetermined,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This also decreases people&#8217;s likelihood to cast their ballot if they know that their vote might not be decisive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Kitchissippi saw the highest turnout across Ottawa&#8217;s 24 wards, with 48.68 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">The ward was one of two open races, as its former councillor Jeff Leiper made a bid for mayor. Former CBC journalist Joanne Chianello won the seat Monday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">&#8220;This community tends to be pretty involved in what&#8217;s going on,&#8221; said Kitchissippi resident Jim Humphrey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">&#8220;I think it was an important election. Like, do we keep going down the path we&#8217;ve been going, or do we take a flyer on something else?&#8221; said his wife Britta Humphrey, adding she was surprised by the turnout across the rest of the city. &#8220;I would have thought people would have been more interested.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Gloucester-Southgate and Rideau Vanier, where incumbents Jessica Bradley and St\u00e9phanie Plante were re-elected, saw the lowest turnout with only 28.49 and 28.57 per cent turnout respectively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Official results are expected to be declared by Ottawa&#8217;s city clerk on or before Oct. 30, and the new term of council will begin on Nov. 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-948618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}