WATCH: Election day a little over a week away, thousands on Vancouver Island jumped at the first chance to vote this weekend. Isabelle Raghem reports.
Polling stations welcomed thousands across the Island on the first weekend of advance voting.
“[It] was hectic,” says Randy Cuthbert with Elections BC at the James Bay New Horizon Seniors Centre ,”We were non stop all three polling stations were being bombarded.”
More than 800 hundred people going through the small hall to vote.
Just a few blocks away, the gym at Glenlyon Norfolk school welcomed a large turnout.
“We didn’t think we’d have nearly a thousand people yesterday,” says Brian Dolsen at the polling station in Oak Bay.
Many waiting in long lines this weekend, were hoping to avoid just those long lines come May 9th.
“Most people are voting because they don’t want to vote on election day, they heard of long line ups on voting day,” says Dolsen.
According to Elections BC, the crowds during advance voting get bigger and bigger every election.
In recent campaigns, numbers of early bird voters have quadrupled.
In 1996, under 6 per cent of the total votes were cast in advance polls while in the last election, that number jumped to more than 20 per cent.
That’s why the number of advance voting days was taken from four days in 2013, to six days this time around.
While thousands made their vote official this weekend, the ballots won’t be counted or revealed until election night.
Isabelle Raghem
