Residential mobility, voter registration, and electoral participation in Canada

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 networks that normally provide citizens with the information and support to make political choices, thereby reducing turnout. These alternative explanations are evaluated using Canadian national election data. The analysis reinforces previous research asserting the importance of registration barriers in reducing the turnout of those who have recently moved. Additionally, 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.