It’s not just Vancouver. Multiple B.C. municipalities are reporting a significant uptick in advance voting as the province’s civic elections creep closer.<\/p>\n
In the City of Kelowna, 2,712 people turned out for the first day of early voting, close to double the 1,471 who showed up to vote early in 2022.<\/p>\n
Michael Jud, Kelowna’s deputy city clerk and chief election officer, said the high early turnout is a good sign amid concerns that simultaneous municipal and provincial elections could turn voters off.<\/p>\n
“It’s too early to say what the ultimate effect will be, but at this point, we aren’t seeing any sign of a decrease in turnout,” he said.<\/p>\n
Jud said a higher than usual number of council vacancies could be driving voter interest. But he added the city has made efforts to ensure early voting is fast and easy, which could be what’s drawing more people to the advance polls.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in Surrey, 10,618 people cast an early ballot on Wednesday, up 30 per cent from the 8,159 ballots cast on the first day of advance voting in 2022.<\/p>\n
And in Burnaby, 9,710 people cast ballots over the first two days of early voting, up 73.8 per cent over the 5,585 people who did over the same period in the last election.<\/p>\n
Burnaby deputy chief election officer Josh Comia said several council vacancies and the large number of candidates on the ballot compared to the 2022 election, along with the provincial election, may be contributing “a bit of a buzz” about politics.<\/p>\n
However he cautioned that high advance turnout won’t necessarily translate into higher turnout overall, and that more voters may simply be choosing the convenience of early voting.<\/p>\n
LISTEN | Early voting surges in Vancouver:<\/p>\n
“Advanced voting generally has an increased interest because it appeals more widely to everybody,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We do have six voting locations available spread out across the the whole city, so just making advanced voting more widely available has allowed us to capture more attention.”<\/p>\n
If Vancouver’s recent elections are any indication, higher advance turnout may not, in fact, translate into higher overall voter interest.<\/p>\n
The city has made a concerted effort over the last decade to expand opportunities for advance voting, and has seen the number of people casting an early ballot surge from just under over 34,000 in 2014 to 65,127 in 2022.<\/p>\n
Over that same period, however, overall turnout has actually declined from 181,707 (43.4 per cent) in 2014 to 171,494 in 2022 (36.3 per cent).<\/p>\n