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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, N ov em be r 1, 20 18 | 14 While the rest of Water- loo was in the 30 per cent range, UpTown Waterloo soared as nearly half of eli- gible voters cast their bal- lots in last week's munici- pal election. A total of 4,478, or 47.70 per cent of those eligible, voted in Ward 7 as Tenillle Bonoguore fought off four competitors to win the role as councillor. "I'm hoping people real- ize this is just the start. We should consider 50 per cent as where we should be, if not higher," said Bonogu- ore. "I don't think it's hard to convince uptowners of that. I'd like to see a greater turnout in other wards as well. "To be honest, I was not surprised that it was a high turnout, people were real- ly engaged. People were re- ally paying attention, I thought it would be in the mid-40's, that it was in the high 40's (made me) really happy." However, the incum- bent councillor was disap- pointed with the lack of voter turnout at Laurier. "One thing that really disappointed me, was when you look at the Ward 7 poll from Laurier, there was no votes cast at the concourse," Bonoguore said. She went on to say that the student union at Lauri- er made an effort as well as the candidates to get the students involved, but there is a disconnect that needs to be worked on. City of Waterloo munic- ipal clerk Olga Smith says the city had a big effort in trying to get voters en- gaged, but it still remains a challenge. "We do videos, we do campaign ads, and for the first time in this election, on our election page for candidates, we did have an email address or website that people could click on for more information, or contact the candidate di- rectly," said Smith. "I'm not sure what else we can do to try and get increased voter engagement, and get peo- ple out to vote. "I think when you're voting in the federal or pro- vincial (election), there's party's there, and you clearly understand what the platforms are. For mu- nicipal election, there are candidates and you really need to do some searching to find out what the candi- dates stand for, that re- quires a bit of effort on the part of the voter. I think that's part of the issue as far as people not being en- gaged as they might be for provincial or federal elec- tions." The 47.70 per cent turn- out was an eight per cent increase from 2014 in Up- town, when 39 per cent of those eligible cast their ballots, despite Coun. Me- lissa Durrell being ac- claimed. "There's a lot of develop- ment going on in the Up- Town," said Smith. "I think there's a lot of changes in the UpTown, and people really take an interest in coming out and voting for a new councillor." A total of 24,843 ballots were cast in the City of Wa- terloo, a 34.22 per cent vot- er turnout. Ward 1, southwest Wa- terloo, had the second highest turnout in terms of percentage, with 36.03 per cent, while Ward 6, Cen- tral-Columbia was the low- est at 28.61 per cent. "It's a very challenging thing though given the fracturing of our commu- nications landscape, it's not going to be an easy fix, there was some people that still don't know what date the election was," Bonoqu- ore said in regards to low voter turnout. "This is a challenge, (but one) that we're not alone in facing. I think it's an important one to over- come, so people do feel that their voice and votes really matter." VOTER TURNOUT SPIKES IN UPTOWN WATERLOO, STAGNATES EVERYWHERE ELSE Waterloo municipal election voter turnout 24,843 34.22% TOTAL BALLOTS TURNOUT Ward 1 (Southwest) Ward 2 (Northwest) Ward 3 (Lakeshore) Ward 4 (Northeast) Ward 5 (Southeast) Ward 6 (Central- Columbia) Ward 7 (Uptown) 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Metroland Infographic NAMISH MODI nmodi@ waterloochronicle.ca MUNICIPAL ELECTION NEARLY HALF OF VOTERS CAST BALLOT