The variety of Canadians opting to vote by mail in subsequent week’s federal election will doubtless find yourself far decrease than Elections Canada’s preliminary estimates.
The group mentioned simply final month that it was bracing for an enormous surge in mail-in poll requests as Canadians regarded for different voting strategies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Surveys performed by Elections Canada prompt that between two and three million Canadians would vote by mail this yr, up from about 50,000 through the 2019 election.
However with simply sooner or later left for voters to request mail-in ballots, solely 985,000 Canadians have accomplished so. About 52,000 of these requests had been made by Canadians residing exterior the nation. In 2019, such voters accounted for almost all of mail-in requests.
Individuals voting by mail obtain what Elections Canada calls “particular poll voting kits.” The kits don’t embody an inventory of candidates — voters should as an alternative write the title of their chosen candidate on the poll.
Voters who request mail-in kits are additionally not permitted to vote in-person throughout advance polls or on election day.
If you would like to vote by mail however have not requested your poll but, you possibly can apply on-line at this website online. The deadline to request a mail-in poll is Tuesday, Sept. 14, at 6 p.m.
Election day is subsequent Monday, Sept. 20.
Delays anticipated as a consequence of mail-in ballots
Regardless of the variety of requests falling nicely beneath the anticipated demand, mail-in ballots are nonetheless anticipated to make the 2021 election an uncommon one, because the leads to some shut races might be delayed by a number of days.
Chief Electoral Officer Stephane Perrault has warned that election officers is not going to start counting mail-in ballots till Sept. 21 with a purpose to make sure that all ballots obtained by the cutoff are tallied.
Perrault has mentioned it might take two to 5 days to finish the rely of mail-in ballots, which might stop shut races from being known as till that rely is full.
Voters in Victoria have requested 11,288 particular ballots as of Sept. 13, essentially the most of any electoral district in Canada. The driving was determined by simply 2,382 votes in 2019, suggesting {that a} equally shut race might be amongst these delayed whereas mail-on ballots are counted.
Within the 2019 election, 9 ridings had been determined by a margin of 500 or fewer votes.
Advance polling figures much like 2019
At this time additionally marks the ultimate day for Canadians to vote prematurely polls, which opened on Friday.
Advance polling figures collected to date additionally recommend that choice has been in style, however not considerably extra so than within the 2019 federal election.
Thanks on your persistence over the primary days of advance polls. On Friday, our first estimates present that greater than 1.3 million Canadians solid their poll in individual. That’s greater than on the primary day of advance polls throughout GE43! <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ItsOurVote?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#ItsOurVote</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CdnPoli?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#CdnPoli</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Elxn44?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#Elxn44</a> (1/2) <a href=”https://t.co/0d6QMg6YqD”>pic.twitter.com/0d6QMg6YqD</a>
—@ElectionsCan_E
Round 1.3 million Canadians solid their ballots at advance polls on Friday through the first of 4 advance voting days, Elections Canada has mentioned. Numbers from Saturday and Sunday haven’t but been made accessible.
Greater than 4.9 million individuals voted prematurely polls within the 2019 election.
