2016 Plebiscite on Democratic Renewal

In the fall of 2016, voters on Prince Edward Island were given a unique opportunity to vote on Democratic Renewal or as some refer to as Electoral Reform. Legislation was passed in the PEI Legislative Assembly, allowing Elections PEI to register voters as young as 16 years of age on or by November 7th, 2016 to vote in the plebiscite.

Read the Report of the Chief Electoral Officer's Report on the 2016 Plebiscite on Democratic Renewal (PDF).

The Ballot 

A Preferential Voting System was used to rank the five Electoral Systems on the Plebiscite Ballot. A voter selected their most preferred option to least preferred option. A voter could rank one or all five of the options. 

The Results

PEI traditionally has a high voter turnout for provincial general elections, usually well over 80%. The plebiscite had a low voter turnout.  The following outlines the turnout, voting and the overall results.

Plebiscite Voter Turnout 

2016 Plebiscite on Democratic Renewal Voter Turnout
Votes Results
Eligible electors 102,464
Total voter turnout 37,354 (36.5%)
Valid ballots cast 37,040 
Rejected Ballots 317 

Results After Final Round of Preferential Voting

Final Results of the 2016 Plebiscite on Electoral Reform using Preferential Voting.
Electoral System Totals % of Votes
Mixed Member Proportional 19,418 52.42
First-Past-The-Post 15,869 42.84