OrilliaMatters received the following letter from Konrad Brenner in response to recent stories about poor turnout during the municipal election.
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The turnout in the recent municipal election was one out of three eligible voters in the 16 municipalities in the County of Simcoe and the two cities (Barrie and Orillia) Not a great turnout considering that the elected people deal with everyday matters and not some abstract foreign policy.
In half of the 18 municipalities, the voters could vote from home. In the other half, the voters had to go to some place other than their dwelling. In other words they had to put in some physical effort.
The participation rate for the “home voters” was slightly higher than for the “going out” voters but not significantly different. It appears that the method of voting is not significant.
One wonders, why voters do not take more interest on how their local tax money is spent.
Konrad Brenner
Ramara Township
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