Tuesday Seminar – 6 avril

Making Sense of Electoral Behaviour in Seniors’ Residences

Florence Vallée-Dubois (Université de Montréal)

Does placing polling stations in seniors’ residences have a positive impact on turnout? Does it benefit parties that are more popular among older citizens? I explore these questions using original data on electoral outcomes in seniors’ residences during the 2015 and 2019 federal elections in Canada. Results show that turnout was 4.2 higher in seniors’ residences in 2015, and 6.7 points higher in 2019. In 2019, Liberal candidates scored approximately 4 points higher in seniors’ residences than in other polling stations, even though survey data reveal that Liberal support was not higher among older people during this election. In this presentation, I will discuss plausible explanations for this result and present my strategy to address this puzzle. This paper documents the electoral consequences of facilitating turnout among seniors and contributes to research on the costs of voting. 

Contact Semih Çakır if you would like to participate in the seminar.

This content has been updated on 12 April 2021 at 9 h 33 min.