Voting numbers up, turnout percentage down

426,706 people vote in Saskatchewan election, turnout was 57%

Image | Elections Saskatchewan ballot box

Caption: The number of people who voted was up, but the number of registered voters was way up, so the turnout percentage dropped from 2011 to 2015. (Elections Saskatchewan)

More people went to the polls in Monday's Saskatchewan election compared to 2011 — about 22,833 more.
However, the turnout percentage actually went down, according to figures provided by Elections Saskatchewan.
426,706 people voted this time, versus 403,873 in 2011.
The percentage of registered voters who voted was 66.7 per cent in 2011, but only 56.8 per cent this year.
According to the chief electoral officer Michael Boda, the drop can be attributed to the fact that Elections Saskatchewan has gotten a lot better at registering voters — and with a bigger denominator in the equation, the turnout fell.
Between the two elections, the number of registered voters increased from 605,615 to 750,893. That's a 24 per cent increase.