Elections BC says 52.4 per cent of registered voters in cast a ballot in Saturday’s provincial election, with that number expected to grow by a few percentage points in the weeks ahead.

Preliminary results show 546,877 people voted on Oct. 24, while 670,324 people voted over seven days of advanced polls. A further 525,000 people voted by mail and another 85,000 absentee ballots were submitted.

That comes to 1,827,201 million votes out of 3,485,858 registered voters in the province according to Elections BC.

“The preliminary estimate of voter turnout will likely increase when mail-in ballots dropped off in person are accounted for,” said spokesperson Andrew Watson, adding Elections BC will provide that information once it’s available.

In 2017, 61.2 per cent of registered voters in B.C. cast a ballot for a total of 1,986,374 valid votes.

Watson says the total number of ballots this year could be that high once all the votes are counted, but he points out it would be a smaller percentage compared to 2017 because there are nearly 250,000 more registered voters compared to three years ago.