Voter turnout is higher in Canada then in the US
Canada
http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?...textonly=false
U.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...#Voter_turnout
http://elections.gmu.edu/Voter_Turnout_2004.htm
2006 Canadian Election: 64.7% (2004 turnout was 60.9%)
2004 U.S. Election: 56.69% (wikipedia source). The George Mason University site has different numbers but I am not sure how to interpret them.
As for youth:
Elections Canada has this as the estimates for the 2004 Election:
http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?...textonly=false
Quote:
Figure 1 shows the estimates for turnout rates by age group at the national level. These estimates are calculated by comparing the number of voters to the estimated voting age population for each age group (citizens only).
The general trend consists of a linear relationship between age and participation, consistent with the patterns traditionally observed using other research methods. However, the results showed one interesting exception to this relationship: for the youngest group of electors (18–21½ year-olds) for whom June 28, 2004, was the first federal general election in which they were eligible to vote, the turnout rate was four points higher than for the next oldest group (21½–24 year-olds), that is, those who had been eligible to vote for the first time in 2000. Yet it is worth noting that this difference falls below the margin of error for the national sample, which means that the gap between the two estimates could be explained by the sampling error and does not necessarily indicate a true difference between the estimates.
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So that is:
18-21 1/2: 39%
21 1/2 -24: 35%
25-29: 46%
On page 6 of 8 in this paper done at the John F. Kennedy Scholl of Government it shows a 51% turnout for the 18-29 age group for the 2004 U.S. elections.
http://www.vanishingvoter.org/Releas...4_Election.pdf
That is higer than the Canadian youth turnout but I would like to get a little bit closer to matching the age groups.
This Study from CIRCLE shows the turnout for the 18-24 age group for the 2004 U.S. Elections to be 42%-47%.
That is much closer.