Voter Turnout Rate

Following a substantial community effort and many years, Whistler has an updated Official Community Plan and Vision (OCP) that sets the course for the community into the future. Whistler Council adopted the OCP at its meeting June 23, 2020. The new vision and OCP builds on Whistler 2020, Whistler’s previous guiding policy document.

Work is underway to align existing community performance indicators with the new vision and OCP. The most current data is available in the 2019 Annual Report. View the 2019 data.

Voter Turnout Rate

Voter turnout showed a statistical increase in 2018 to a moderate performance level . The 2018 population count is not available at time of updating so no voting rate results by population can be calculated.

Why monitor this

Voter turnout reflects overall community commitment to the political system, as well as involvement in decision making. Poor turnout may reflect unfamiliarity with the democratic process or a sense of disempowerment. However, dissatisfaction with current community issues can lead to greater turnout at a specific time. Local issues and other factors should be taken into consideration when interpreting this indicator.

What this measures

This indicator tracks the relationship between the number of ballots cast in local municipal elections and Whistler's population to arrive at the percentage of elibible voters and population that voted. Community population is used in addition to the eligible voters count for comparisons over time due to past discrepancies in the eligible voter list. Voter rate results from 2008 forward are comparable using the eligible voters list.