Advance Voter Turnout High for BC, New Brunswick Elections

The participation of voters in the provincial elections in British Columbia and New Brunswick has exceeded the norm, as reported by election officials.

New Brunswick has witnessed 138,000 ballots being cast, accounting for a 24.1 percent voter turnout, as per Elections New Brunswick’s communication with The Epoch Times.

In British Columbia, 778,424 voters had already submitted their ballots by the end of October 15, representing nearly 22 percent, according to Elections BC’s email to The Epoch Times.

The 2020 election in British Columbia took place amidst the pandemic, with an “unprecedented” 31.4 percent of voters casting their ballots by mail, as per Elections BC. A record 35.4 percent of voters opted for advance voting, compared to only 28.8 percent on the actual election day.

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The percentage of voters choosing advance voting has been steadily rising over the years, the report indicated, from 6.9 percent in the 2001 provincial election to 35.4 percent in 2020. Advance voting took place between October 15 and 21, 2020, with a total of 671,231 votes cast.

Nearly 1.9 million registered voters participated in the 2020 election, resulting in a voter turnout of approximately 54 percent.

NB 2020 Election

Voters in New Brunswick also partook in the election during the pandemic, with the provincial election held in September 2020.

That year, almost 35 percent of voters (131,603 out of 376,903) utilized advance polling stations, which were open on September 5 and September 8, while 47 percent of the voters cast their ballots on the election day, the report stated.

It marked the highest number of advance ballots cast in a provincial election since records dating back to 1967.

In total, over 65 percent of registered voters participated in the 2020 election, resulting in 376,903 votes being cast.