New record of one million voters in BC election's advance voting

New record of over one million voters in BC election's advance voting period

Elections BC voting place. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The final tally for the number of votes cast in the 2024 BC provincial election’s advance voting period is in, and it far exceeds the previous record.

Elections BC’s statistical update today, following the conclusion of the six-day advance voting period, shows that 1,001,331 total votes have already been recorded.

In comparison, the previous advance voting record for BC was set in the October 2020 provincial election during the pandemic, when 671,231 advance votes were recorded.

Furthermore, the daily total of 222,907 votes on the last day of voting, Wednesday, October 16, also broke a new all-time daily record for advance voting.

The second and third busiest days for advance voting ever also belong to the 2024 election, with 181,669 votes recorded on Tuesday, October 15, and 171,381 on Thursday, October 10, the first day of voting.

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Before this month, the previous daily record for advance voting was 126,491 in the 2017 provincial general election.

So far, 28% of registered voters have already participated in the 2024 election through advance voting, compared to 19% in the 2020 election.

Some ridings have already seen turnout rates of well over 30% of registered voters.

In real numbers, the ridings with the most votes cast in advance voting are Saanich North and the Islands, with 18,277; Courtenay-Comox, with 18,173; and Oak Bay-Gordon Head, with 16,315.

Within the city of Vancouver, the highest number was logged at Vancouver-South Granville, where 12,811 advance votes were cast out of 41,327 registered voters, representing a turnout of 31% before general voting day.

For Vancouver-Point Grey, the riding of BC NDP party leader David Eby, 12,406 advance votes have been recorded out of 34,004 registered voters, representing a turnout of 36.5% before general voting day.

In Vancouver-Yaletown, 11,521 advance votes were cast in a riding with 35,652 registered voters, representing a 32% turnout to date.

Another notable riding in the Metro Vancouver region is Surrey-White Rock, where 14,474 advance votes were cast. Based on 44,682 registered voters, this represents a turnout of 32%.

As of October 7, there are a total of 3,550,017 registered voters in the 2024 BC election, representing a 1.8% increase compared to 3,486,398 registered at the close of the 2020 election. There were a total of 1,898,553 votes cast in the 2020 election, representing an overall turnout of 53.9%. The number of voters who registered while voting in 2020 was 38,414.

The number of advance votes in 2024 is equivalent to 52.7% of the overall number of votes cast in 2020.

Advance voting does not include mail-in ballots. Due to the pandemic, Elections BC expanded mail-in-ballot opportunities for the 2020 election, with 596,287 vote-by-mail ballots accepted four years ago.

New digital systems introduced for the 2024 provincial election allow voters to vote at any voting place, allow Elections BC to report results faster on election night, and allow Elections BC to count almost all ballots on election night, including mail-in and absentee ballots.

The 2024 provincial general election day is Saturday, October 19.

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