If advance voting was any indication, it seems there is a lot more interest than usual in next week's federal election.
Marie-France Kenny is Regional Media Advisor for Elections Canada. She says 7.3 million electors voted by advance voting nationwide. This represents an increase of 26 per cent compared to the last general election in 2021.
Wednesday, Elections Canada released a further breakdown of the numbers, dividing things up provincially. In Manitoba, the estimated turnout was 229,379 up 42,000 voters from the 2021 general election equaling a 22% increase. Electoral District numbers are expected to be released Thursday.
Meanwhile, some voters have expressed concern over the fact that only pencils were provided at certain voting stations.
"Actually, the law says that we need to provide pencils," says Kenny. "But it doesn't say that people can't bring their own marker or pen or whatever Sharpie, or whatever they want to vote."
Kenny says as long as the ballot is clearly marked indicating who the voter is selecting, they can use whatever writing tool they desire.
She adds that people have also expressed concern that ballots might smudge and therefore be spoiled. However, Kenny says the ballots are printed on anti-smudging paper. Further to that, she says the voters are the ones placing the ballot into the box and therefore they should be able to fold it in such a way that smudging would not be possible anyway.
Kenny explains that once the polls close on election night, the doors are closed and the ballot boxes taken into a private room. Inside this private room will be two employees or scrutineers who were working there that day. There will also be two observers who might be candidate observers or electors from that riding who are not working for Elections Canada.
"So, each table has these four people and there is also a supervisor in the room," she explains. "People cannot leave the room until all the ballots are counted."
Kenny says every ballot is looked at by each person that is present at the table.
"So, every vote is looked at by the candidates' observers, by the two employees and they are confined to a book," she says. "And then they are piled and then we count the piles as well, just to make sure that everything balances out."
Not only is advance voting now over, but the deadline has now passed to vote by special ballot or to order your vote by mail kit.
Election day is April 28th.