B.C. smashes advance voting record with a million ballots already cast

By The Canadian Press on October 17, 2024.

B.C. NDP Leader David Eby shields himself from the rain with an umbrella while walking from his bus to a house for a campaign stop in Surrey, B.C., on Monday, October 14, 2024. Voters along the south coast of British Columbia who have not cast their ballots yet will have to contend with heavy rain and high winds from an incoming atmospheric river weather system on election day. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

VANCOUVER – Elections BC says a record number of British Columbians have already cast their ballots in advance voting before Saturday’s provincial election.

The elections body says just over a million people have voted, representing more than 28 per cent of all registered electors and putting the province on track for big overall turnout.

They include about 223,000 people who voted on the final day of advance voting on Wednesday, the last of six days of advance polls, shattering the one-day record set just a day earlier by more than 40,000 votes.

Some ridings have already seen turnout of more than 35 per cent.

The previous record for advance voting in a B.C. election was set in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when about 670,000 people voted early, representing about 19 per cent of registered voters.

Total turnout in the 2020 election was 54 per cent, down from about 61 per cent in 2017.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said more than 180,000 voters cast their votes on Wednesday.