There’s a healthy appetite for democracy on the North Shore heading into the 2018 municipal elections if advanced voter turnout is any indication.
The District of North Vancouver more than tripled the number of people who took advantage of advance voting: 2,349 in this year compared to 753 in the 2014 election, which had one extra day of early polls.
West Vancouver has also smashed recent records with 2,476 ballots cast over seven days of early polls – more than double the old record of 1,213 set in 2008. That was the last time the municipality had a contested mayoral race, although there were only three days of early voting that year.
The City of North Vancouver is accepting advance ballots right up until 6 p.m. on Friday but as of the end of the day Wednesday, 1,958 ballots had been cast, compared to 1,469 in 2014. That election also had two more days of advance voting.
Greg Lyle, president of polling firm Innovative Research said there are three possible explanations behind the spike.
First, there has been a trend across Canada for more people taking advantage of early voting as it has been made easier to do so by all levels of government.
Also, Lyle added, campaigns have become keener on their get-out-the-vote efforts, asking their supporters to lock in their ballot early and limiting the risk of them getting sidelined on election day.
Lastly, Lyle said, big advance polls numbers could be a harbinger of change. The same could be seen when the federal Liberals swept ridings across B.C. in 2015 or when long-held B.C. Liberal ridings flipped to the provincial NDP in 2017. And, he noted, there are a lot of incumbent mayors and councillors who have chosen not to run again.
“There’s just a general frustration with the cost and the hassle of living in the Lower Mainland,” he said. “They’re frustrated for different reasons in different places.”
General election day is on Saturday, Oct. 20. Polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
