Edmonton voters are taking advantage of the advance polls for the federal election. The early polls opened Friday and continue until Monday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
While Elections Canada won’t be confirming how many people have voted early until later, Edmonton and central Alberta’s field liaison officer Ruth Sorrentino said it’s been a steady stream of people stopping by.
“It does appear that advance polls are more popular,” Sorrentino said.
After long ling ups in 2015 for advance polls, changes have been made to make voting earlier easier. 25 per cent more polling stations have been added across Canada, and the daily advanced polling hours have been extended by four.
READ MORE: Advance voting is underway. Here’s what you need to know to cast an early ballot
In order to vote, people will need a government issued I.D. with a current address, or a piece of mail with their home address along with a picture I.D.
“We just like to give people options because election day itself can be busy for some people, so if they’re going to be out of town or if they know they’re busy working that day, or have other commitments, this allows them to cast their ballot… instead of being restricted to that one day,” Sorrentino said.
In the 2015 election, 3,677,2017 Canadian voters cast advance ballots, representing 20.8 per cent of all votes cast.
READ MORE: Got questions about voting in Canada? Here are some answers
Elections Canada says that was a 74 per cent jump from the 2011 election, when 2,111,542 voters (14 per cent of all ballots) voted early.
Election day is Oct. 21.
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