Residential Mobility, Voter Registration, and Electoral Participation in Canada

• Date: 01 March 1997
• DOI: 10.1177/106591299705000111
• Published date: 01 March 1997
• Author: Craig Leonard Brians
• Subject Matter: Articles

215

Residential

Mobility,

Voter

Registration,

and

Electoral

Participation

in

Canada

CRAIG

LEONARD

BRIANS,

UNIVERSITY

OF

CALIFORNIA,

IRVINE

This

paper

tests

two

propositions

advanced

to

explain

reduced

voter

turnout

among

the

residentially

mobile:

(1)

when

citizens

have

a

personal

responsibility

to

re-register

following

a

move,

this

poses

a

participation

barrier

and

reduces

turnout;

(2)

the

act

of

moving

severs

the

social

net-

works

that

normally

provide

citizens

with

the

information

and

support

to

make

political

choices,

thereby

reducing

turnout.

These

alternative

expla-

nations

are

evaluated

using

Canadian

national

election

data.

The

analysis

reinforces

previous

research

asserting

the

importance

of

registration

barri-

ers

in

reducing

the

turnout

of

those

who

have

recently

moved.

Addition-

ally,

I

find

that

movers’ social

ties

play

an

independent

role

in

their

turnout,

with

moving

particularly

attenuating

unmarried

citizens’

turnout.

These

findings

are

extended

to

suggest

that

recent

U.S.

initiatives

facilitating

voter

registration

may

produce

less

than

previously

predicted

turnout

gains

among

the

mobile.

This

article

expands

the

consideration

of

the

relationship

between

resi-

dential

mobility

and

reduced

political

participation,

with

voter

registration

regarded

as

but

one

of

several

factors

that

may

individually

or

cumulatively

reduce

movers’

turnout.

Most

current

mobility

and

voter

turnout

research

NOTE:

This

is

a

substantially

revised

version

of

a

paper

I

presented

at

the

1995

meetings

of

the

Midwest

Political

Science

Association,

Chicago.

This

article

benefited

im-

measurably

from

constructive

criticism

offered

by

Carole

Uhlaner,

Marty

Wattenberg,

and

Ruth

Jones.

Additionally,

Richard

Johnson

offered

me

an

excep-

tionally

useful

insider’s

view

of

the

Canadian

National

Election

Study

Data

from

the

1979

Canadian

National

Election

Study

were

made

available

by

ICPSR

(#8079).

The

data

were

originally

collected

by

Harold

Clarke,

Jane

Jenson,

Lawrence

Leduc,

and

Jon

Pammett.

Neither

ICPSR

nor

the

original

collectors

of the

data

bear

any

responsibility

for

the

analyses

or

interpretation

presented

here.