Record advance turnout in Vancouver City Council by-election | Daily Hive

Record number of advance votes in Vancouver City Council by-election

Long lines outside Vancouver City Hall on April 1, 2025 for advance voting in the Vancouver City Council by-election. (Yvonne Hanson/Shutterstock)

The City of Vancouver saw a record for the turnout of advance voting in the 2025 Vancouver City Council by-election to fill two vacant city councillor seats.

This comes just ahead of the main by-election voting day of Saturday, April 5, 2025, when 25 polling stations across the city will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. A total of 13 candidates are running.

The municipal government’s elections office told Daily Hive Urbanized it saw a total of 7,671 votes cast over the two days of advance voting, including 2,876 ballots on Wednesday, March 26 and 4,795 ballots on Tuesday, April 1, 2025.

This also exceeds the previous record of about 2,500 ballots cast at a single voting location in any election. It should be emphasized that the only advance voting location for both days was at Vancouver City Hall, with long lines and waits reported.

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The two-day total represents an 84 per cent increase over the October 2017 by-election’s two days of advance voting, which was held to fill one vacant city councillor seat and all nine vacant Vancouver School Board trustee seats, after the provincial government fired the previous School Board trustees.

The October 2017 by-election saw 1,988 ballots cast on the first day of advance voting, and 2,186 on the second day.

As well, over 6,400 mail-in-ballots for the April 2025 by-election were requested before the deadline to receive a package, compared to the 647 requests in the October 2017 by-election, when this option for voting was restricted to certain individuals meeting specific criteria. These figures should not be confused for completed ballots that are returned to the elections office in time for the start of counting.

The October 2017 by-election saw a total of 48,645 ballots cast, including 4,174 ballots during advance voting, 330 mail-in-ballot completions (not to be confused for mere package requests), and 44,141 ballots on the main voting day. This represented a by-election turnout of just 10.99 per cent, which was well under the City’s target of a 20 per cent turnout, according to a report summarizing that year’s by-election results.

However, the report notes that based on a review of the municipal government’s history of by-elections, a 10 per cent turnout is typical for a by-election. By-elections in Vancouver are rare, with the last by-elections held in 2017, 1992, and 1985.

In contrast, 171,494 ballots were cast in the October 2022 general civic election, with a turnout of 36.3 per cent. In the October 2018 election, 176,450 ballots were cast, with a turnout of 39.4 per cent.

Hector Bremner of the Non-Partisan Association party won the City Council seat in the October 2017 by-election with a lead of more than 3,000 votes over the next best-performing candidate, while the Vision Vancouver candidate — the representative of the governing party — finished a distant fifth.

The City’s elections office will begin its count of the votes after the 8 p.m. closure of voting on Saturday, April 5, 2025. The preliminary results will be populated after the start of counting.

Click here for Daily Hive Urbanized’s full guide on the 13 candidates running in the by-election and the positions of the major civic parties, as well as how, where, and when to vote on the main by-election voting day of Saturday, April 5, 2025.

Vancouver by-election voting locations map 2025

Map of the 25 voting locations for the Vancouver City Council by-election on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (City of Vancouver)

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