It seems people in Kamloops are eager to get involved early in this year’s election.

Three days of advance voting this year at two locations — Heritage House and MacArthur Island — saw just over 5,000 advanced votes cast, according to Deputy Chief Elections Officer Natalie Garbay.

This is up from the roughly 3,000 ballots cast at the lone advanced polling station in Kamloops — Heritage House — in 2018.

While pleased with the turnout, Garbay says it’s not clear if this is going to translate into more votes cast on General Voting Day on Saturday.

“What can either happen is the voting is either pre-loaded now, and our polling locations will be quieter,” notes Garbay.  “Or we can anticipate an overall increase in voter turnout. We really have no way of knowing.”

Garbay points out this year did see the creation of the MacArthur Island advanced polling station, which may have influenced the number of advanced votes as well.

“We knew that the North Shore wad definitely a location that needed a polling location. So MacArthur Island being a city facility, it made perfect sense. We had the resources. It’s a great space to that. There’s an elevator for accessibility to get upstairs.”

This year the City of Kamloops also sent out over a thousand mail-in ballots, which are being counted as they come in, and will be added to the tally on Saturday once the polls close at 8pm.

Voter turnout in civic elections in Kamloops, and many other communities in British Columbia, usually averages around 30 percent.