Nearly 20% of eligible voters took advantage of the advanced voting days for the BC Provincial Election in the Stikine riding.
The early polls opened on Oct 15 and closed Wednesday (Oct 21).
In Stikine, 2,708 votes were tallied out of 14, 250 eligible voters (19%).
Elections BC spokesperson Andrew Watson said election officials normally see the advanced voting go into a U-shape for voting numbers.
“The first day is a big day then the last day turns out to be a big day with the number of voters participating,” he said.
In the Nechako Lakes riding, only 9% of eligible voters took advantage of the early polls.
The riding had 1,539 ballots cast out of the 17,418 eligible voters.
According to Watson, nearly 19.5% of British Columbians voted in the early polls with over 681 thousand people.
Watson also said the numbers of advanced voters is similar to the 2017 Provincial election.
“I would describe it as relatively the same. The advanced voting period is a bit different this time, we had a seven-day advanced voting period this election as we added an additional day to give voters more opportunity to vote but also give more time with our pandemic response.” he said.
Voting numbers by day:
Stikine:
Oct 15 – 411
Oct 16- 577
Oct 17- 507
Oct 18- 386
Oct 19- 328
Oct 20- 275
Oct 21- 421
Nechako Lakes:
Oct 15- 424
Oct 16- 297
Oct 17- 236
Oct 18- 89
Oct 19- 124
Oct 20- 211
Oct 21- 158
General Election Day is Saturday (Oct 24) from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. For a full list of polling stations go to the Elections BC website.