As elections BC reports record turnout across the province for advance voter participation, those in the two Kamloops ridings are following suit.
Elections BC has released numbers showing about 17% of eligible voters in Kamloops Centre have already voted in one of the first three days int he advanced voting window, while in Kamloops North-Thompson it is about 12%.
Elections BC Spokesperson Andrew Watson says those figures are on par with the what we saw across the province. “So in terms of comparing the Kamloops districts with the province overall for this advanced voting period, that is around average turnout from what we’re seeing elsewhere in BC, although overall advanced voting turnout is up province wide.”
“So we’ve had four days of advanced voting now from October 10 to 13th. October 10 and 11th were both record setting days overall province wide. On October 10 we had around 171,000 advanced votes, and on October 11, we had around 155,000 advanced votes. And both those days beat the previous record for an advanced voting day, which was 126,000 that was set back in 2017 so province wide, we’ve seen close to 600,000 advanced votes overall, and there’s still two days of advanced voting to go.”
Watson can’t say whether higher numbers of advanced voter turnout will correlate with higher overall election participation. About 54% of eligible voters showed up in 2020. “I think the advanced numbers we’ve seen thus far do show that the trend of more voters voting at advanced options is continuing. So in 2020 we had around 35% of all the election ballots were cast during the advanced voting period. And if you go back to elections 20 years ago, we were only having about 10% of voters casting their ballots at events. So we’ve seen the numbers of voters who choose to vote during the advance voting period increase election over election, and it seems that that trend is continuing here in 2024.”
Tuesday, October 15 and Wednesday, October 16 mark the final opportunities to vote in advance of this Saturday’s official election day at a physical location.
If you miss those opportunities, Watson suggests calling Elections BC at 1-800-661-8683. “If advance voting and Election Day aren’t options for you, and just talk about your voting options and figure out what the best way is to make sure you have a chance to cast your ballot this election.”
The available locations to vote on 16th and 17th are:
Kamloops Centre Fairfield Inn & Suites Tue-Wed Oct 15-16
Kamloops Centre Kamloops Free Methodist Church Tue-Wed Oct 15-16
Kamloops Centre Our Lady of Perpetual Help Tue-Wed Oct 15-16
Kamloops Centre St. Paul’s Cathedral Tue-Wed Oct 15-16
Kamloops-North Thompson Barriere Lions Hall Tue-Wed Oct 15-16
Kamloops-North Thompson Chase Comm Hall Tue-Wed Oct 15-16
Kamloops-North Thompson Dutch Lake Comm Centre Tue-Wed Oct 15-16
Kamloops-North Thompson Moccasin Square Gardens Tue-Wed Oct 15-16
Kamloops-North Thompson Orchards Walk Oct 15-16
