Across Canada and locally, more voters chose to cast their ballots early for the 44th general election.
Advanced voting increased by 50 per cent in the Simcoe-Grey riding for the current federal election compared to the last one in 2019.
According to Elections Canada, about 32,124 voters cast a ballot in the advance polls in the Simcoe-Grey riding. Though the 2021 advance poll turnout is still an estimate, it’s 1.5 times higher than the 21,579 votes cast in advance polls in 2019.
The increase is similar in neighbouring Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound where an estimated 20,538 voters cast a ballot at advanced polls this month, up from 15,792 confirmed advance voters in 2019.
Across Canada, preliminary estimates indicate about 5.78 million electors voted in advance polls, which is up by 18.46 per cent compared to the 2019 general election.
Advance polls were open from Friday, Sept. 10 to Monday, Sept. 13 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day.
Voting day is Sept. 20 with polls open from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. that day.
Polling Stations
The number of voting sites in Simcoe-Grey is down for the 2021 election compared to the 2019 election.
There were 16 locations for advanced voting with approximately 36 polling stations this year, compared to 19 locations and 28 polling stations.
There are 53 regular voting locations with 182 polls across the riding this year, compared to 62 sites and 277 polls in 2019.
Traditionally, schools were used as voting locations, but public health officials recommended against their use this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nationally, there will be 14,438 voting locations, a drop from the 15,484 locations used in the 2019 federal election.
