http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674nunavik_election_turn...
28% Lowest voter turnout in Nunavik thats because they cant vote that day sept 4, their name list is missing.
i guess similar federal election 2008.
I can't help, but wonder how many people are being denied thier vote. Canada's turning into a banana republic when it comes to elections.
I would be careful about making statements about voter disenfranchisement, deliberate or otherwise. Turnout is traditionally low in Native communities for both provincial and federal elections and poll-by-poll numbers quoted in the story pretty well match turnout in the 2008 provincial election.
Then, there might be a second factor at play. There was a new voting scheme this year allowing temporary workers and students to vote in their electoral district of record instead of registering in the Ungava electoral district (the criteria was the 'domicile' per sections 76 and 77 of the Civil code.) Across Quebec, 14,000 voters took advantage of this write-in balloting scheme (explained here), many of them from the Ungava and Duplessis districts. Among them, construction workers at the Eastmain and Romaine hydro complexes, hospital workers, civil servants and teachers.
Having worked for the local returning officer in my district in a variety of capacities (as a electoral list revisor, PRIMO, and advance poll clerk) during the last campaign (which forced me to keep quiet in threads such as this one), I can testify to the popularity of this scheme among voters located in these remote ridings (when a ballot is cast remotely, the returning officer is immediately notified by phone and the remote voter is marked as having voted on the official electoral list).
For districts like Ungava, these 'remote' votes mean a declining turnout.