TORONTO – A record number of Torontonians cast a vote during last week’s advance polls.
Over 161,000 people cast a vote during the six days of advance polling ahead of next week’s municipal elections.
The number of voters more than doubled the 77,391 people who took advantage of the advance polls in 2010.
The Timothy Eaton Memorial Church on St. Clair Avenue West facilitated the most advance voters with just over 6,000 people casting a vote last week.
City Hall, the only location where people from across the city could vote, took in 4,232 votes but was only open four of the six days.
Advance voting turnout was highest in the city’s wealthy midtown neighbourhoods and Etobicoke north of the Gardiner Expressway, city data shows.
The pattern roughly mirrors Toronto’s income map, with a high-income core running up Yonge St. and lower-income, lower-advance-turnout neighbourhoods lining the CN railway line stretching northwest through the city’s west end.
It also appears to bode well for mayoral candidate John Tory, who’s been leading in many recent polls. (It may also be good news for Doug Ford, depending how much of his brother’s support he’s maintained in Etobicoke and North York.)
Advance polls are not necessarily an indicator of election day voter turnout. In 2010, 53.3 per cent of Torontonians voted in the mayoral election, up from 39 per cent in 2006. Rob Ford won 47 per cent of the vote (383,501 votes), beating former Liberal cabinet minister George Smitherman who received 35.6 per cent of the vote (289,832 votes).
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