British Columbians turned out in droves during the seven days of advance polling that began on October 15.
There were 681,055 advance ballots cast by the time advance polls closed on Wednesday evening.
In the Cowichan Riding, 11,738 people voted ahead of the general election.
In Nanaimo-North Cowichan, 10,451 voters cast their ballots early.
In Nanaimo, there were 9,579 advance voters.
For Powell River and Sunshine Coast, the number of advance votes was 7,518.
In Parksville-Qualicum 12,609 there were advance ballots.
In Mid-Island Pacific Rim the turnout was 9.501.
The advance polls ran from October 15th to 21st.
Tomorrow (Saturday) is election day and the polls will be open from 8 am to 8 pm.
When voting is finished on the day of a general election it’s usually the beginning of the end.
This election, however, will be different because of the huge volume of mail-in ballots.
Elections BC reports that 724,279 mail-in voting packages were requested.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Charles Porter says they will begin counting them 13 days later and will strive to have the results as soon as they can, but he can’t say exactly when that will be.
He says it normally requires three days and their goal will be to achieve that this year, but “it will take as many days as it takes.”
He says they will proceed carefully to ensure the “integrity of the election is upheld, and that everybody involved is safe.”
All of the mail-in ballots and absentee ballots must be screened before they are counted to make sure people do not vote twice.
The ballot packages are also checked to ensure the voter is registered and legally entitled to vote.
Under this timeline, the final results of the 2020 British Columbia general election may not be known until the week of November 9th.
