Over 20 per cent of North Shore voters cast ballots in advance polls

More than 61,000 people in the three North Shore ridings can cross voting in the federal election off their to-do lists.

Elections Canada has released preliminary numbers for voters who cast their ballots in advance polls for the federal election, which happened Sept. 10-13.

Over 20 per cent of voters in all three North Shore ridings can count their vote as done and dusted.

North Vancouver had the largest percentage of advance voters. A total of 21,554 people voted in the advance polls there –  about 24 per cent of approximately 89,400 registered voters.

West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country cast the most ballots in advance polls: 22,422. That works out to about 23 per cent of the approximately 97,200 registered voters in the riding.

Over one-fifth of the voters in Burnaby North-Seymour also have already cast ballots. A total of 17,383 people cast ballots ahead of election day in that riding – about 22 per cent of the approximately 78,700 voters.

In all three ridings, the number of people voting in advance polls was higher than the number who voted that way during the previous federal election in 2019. The number of advance poll voters was higher by between 3,000 and 4,000 votes in each of the North Shore ridings.

North Shore voters are also choosing to vote by mail in high numbers during this election, according to Elections Canada.

North Vancouver voters are among those choosing to cast their ballots by mail in some of the highest numbers, according to Elections Canada.

The North Vancouver riding was 11th highest in the country for the number of people requesting mail-in ballots as of Wednesday morning.

A total of 8,265 mail-in ballots had been requested in the riding and 3,779 of those had been returned, according to Elections Canada.

West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country voters have also requested mail-in ballots in significant numbers. West Vancouver has the 14th highest number of voters requesting the special ballots, with 7,699 mail-in ballots issued as of Tuesday morning and 4,180 of those ballots returned.

Voters in Burnaby North-Seymour had also requested a total of 4,930 mail-in ballots and 1,347 of those had been returned.