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Letter: No excuse for low voter turnout in Burnaby

Those who skip their civic duty to cast their ballot surrender their right to complain, writer says.
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Ballot-voting-web-krisanapong detraphiphat-Moment-Getty Images
Burnaby's voter turnout in Saturday's municipal election of less than 20 per cent is "disgusting," says a reader.krisanapong detraphiphat/Moment/Getty Images

Editor:

I wanted to voice my disheartened displeasure at the lack of voter participation in our recent municipal election.

Burnaby has 163,076 eligible voters. During this election, only 32,249 ballots were cast. That's a percentage of 19.78.

This is utterly disgusting and those who did not bother to participate should be ashamed of themselves. There is NO excuse. The process takes 10 minutes (if that much) and we have several opportunities, from mail in ballots, and advanced voting to voting on the election day.

So many of us have come from countries where there is no democratic process or the process is skewed because of an authoritarian-style process or leader.

Remember, If you didn't bother to vote, please keep your opinions to yourself. You gave up the right to vocalize dissent when you chose to skip your civic duty.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Seaver