An increasing number of New Brunswickers are taking advantage of advance polls in elections.
Chief Electoral Officer for Elections NB Mike Quinn says this year marked an 18% increase in voters using advance polls.
“In 2012, we had 39,902 and in 2016 we had up to 47,091,” says Quinn.
Day two of advance voting is over. Two day total 47,091 ballots cast for May 9, 2016 MUN, DEC & RHA elections. Up by over 7,000 in 2012!
— ElectionsNB (@ElectionsNB) May 3, 2016
Quinn says 24,523 votes were cast on Saturday, and with the remaining 22, 568 votes were cast on Monday.
He says they’ve made it easier for people to vote early.
“And it used to be, in order to vote at the advance poll you had to fill in an application and give a reason why you wouldn’t be able to vote on election day,” says Quinn. “You were going to be absent, ill, or incapacity.”
Quinn says they changed the rules before the 2008 election to allow anyone who wanted to vote early to do so.
He says turnout in municipal elections is generally lower than in provincial or federal elections for a variety of reasons.
“And it has to do with perhaps the races that are going on in different areas, and sometimes there aren’t any races, if you have an acclamation for Mayor, for example, that may bring the number down,” says Quinn.
He says sometimes local issues that are hotly contested encourage people to get out and vote, and sometimes it simply depends on the area with certain regions of the province having higher voter turnout.
The official municipal election day is May 9th and there is still an opportunity to learn more about your candidates if you haven’t voted.
Want to find out the names of the candidates running in your area, visit electionsnb.ca or click on the link.https://t.co/0ETldBFXGS
— ElectionsNB (@ElectionsNB) April 22, 2016
