THUNDER BAY – The percentage of voters in the 2026 municipal election can be deceiving, say city officials.
According to the numbers released by the city clerk’s office, less than 41 percent of the 91,000 eligible voters cast ballots either in the advance polls, online, or in person on Monday.
The numbers seem to fall short of previous years, but Dana Earle, acting returning officer, said voter turnout was actually higher than it was in 2022 by approximately 2,000 more people.
“The percentage is a little deceiving. The percentage is lower, but the base number is higher,” Earle told Newswatch
Earle says the reason the numbers are higher but the percentage stays the same is that following the 2022 election, ownership and management of the voters’ lists moved from being managed by MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) to Elections Ontario, which provides the municipality with different sources of data.
The data show the city has 8,300 more eligible voters on the city’s voters list than in 2022, she said.
Earle said just over 37,000 voters went to the polls or voted online in this year’s election; 66 per cent voted online this year, which is up by three per cent.
Voter turnout in the last two elections was 43.7 percent in 2022 and 50.7 per cent in 2018.
The lowest recorded turnout in the city’s history was in 2006, when 38.5 percent of voters cast ballots in the municipal election.
Earle said city hall was happy with the voter turnout both in person and online.
“We’ve heard so many positive comments about how easy it was. Lots of people posting on social media or sharing with us as we were out in the public how easy it was to cast their vote online. Once they had their voter information letter and access to their PIN, some people said that it was as quick as two minutes to cast their ballot,” she said.
At the two advance voting locations, Earle said more than 2,800 people came out to vote.
In the previous election, the city held two advance in-person voting days on the south side of town and two on the north, as well as drive-through voting.
This year, they had one advance in-person voting day on the south side and one day on the north side, as well as mobile online voting, but those weren’t the only opportunities to vote.
“Knowing that we weren’t going to do the drive-through opportunity this year, we still wanted to make sure that we were out in the community, and we were there to help people access. When we were at the mobile online voting locations at the college and university, Goods and Co. and Thunder Bay market, we had teams there with tablets, so they were either there to help people, answer questions or to actually help someone cast their ballot if they had never done so online,” Earle said.
City hall also has a kiosk set up that was used for both advance and in person voting on election day.
“We had our location and information officers helping people say, if you don’t want to wait in line, if you don’t have time, we do have an online voting opportunity here that you can utilize,” she said.
