Elections BC sees new all-time record for most votes ever on an advance voting day
There was an exceptionally strong turnout for the first advance voting day in the 2024 provincial general election.
According to Elections BC, a total of 171,381 voters were recorded on the first day of advance voting on Thursday, October 10. This breaks the previous daily record of 126,491 in the 2017 provincial general election’s advance voting period, representing an increase of about 35%.
The riding with the most voters on the first day of advance voting was Ladysmith-Oceanside, where 4,252 votes were cast on October 10.
The most advance voters recorded on October 10 in a riding within the city of Vancouver was Vancouver-South Granville, where 2,007 votes were cast.
There are five more advance voting day opportunities — October 11 (Friday), 12 (Saturday), 13 (Sunday), 15 (Tuesday), and 16 (Wednesday).
General election day is Saturday, October 19.
A total of 671,231 advance votes were recorded in the October 2020 provincial election, accounting for 35.4% of the approximate total of 1.9 million votes. Due to the pandemic, Elections BC expanded mail-in-ballot opportunities, with 596,287 vote-by-mail ballots accepted in 2020.
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.