Voter turnout for Tuesday’s election stronger than 2013
Posted May 11, 2017 3:42 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s now at 60 per cent.
Andrew Watson with Elections BC says that’s three per cent higher than four years ago, but we still don’t know exactly how many people registered to vote on May 9th.
“We need to process all the voter registrations that happened during the election period — typically done in late August after an election.”
He says updated numbers are expected after May 24th when the 176,000 absentee ballots have been counted.
“That could change, you know, as we get more information from the field and our district officers confirm their counts in preparation for final count and we are going to publish an electoral district breakdown of that figure.”
So is 60 per cent a passing grade? “Our focus is accessibility and making sure all eligible voters have an opportunity to cast a ballot who choose to. We did have six days of advance voting up from four in 2013.”
The estimated number of eligible voters on General Voting Day will also be available in late August.
At this point, only one losing candidate has formally requested a recount.
Jim Benninger, who ran for the Liberals in the Courtenay-Comox riding on Vancouver Island, lost by only nine votes to the NDP’s Ronna-Rae Leonard.
