Early voting no indication of which way the vote will swing, expert says

The full general election day (aka final voting day) is coming up on Saturday, October 19, with all voting places open from 8 am to 8 pm..
Advanced polling is becoming the norm, thanks to improvements that make it easier and more convenient. Over half a million British Columbians, or 16.8 percent of voters, have already cast their ballots for this year’s provincial election with more than 100,000 people showing up every day to mark a ballot between Oct. 10 and 13. On Tuesday, the province was poised to surpass its previous record set in 2020 when 669,215 people — or 19 per
cent of registered voters — turned up to cast their ballots at advance polls. Richard Johnston, professor emeritus of political science at the University of B.C., said the higher number of advance voters shouldn’t be taken as an indication of total voter turnout for the election, nor does it indicate favour to either leading party.
“Large turnout at advance polls does not mean much in terms of the closeness of the contest,” said Johnston. “It’s a global trend. Voters want advance polling and facilitation has increased the volume. Once people realized this was possible, there was an increase. It’s a matter of convenience.” Advance voting without making a declaration has been an option in B.C. since 1996, according to Elections B.C., and there are 343 advance voting locations throughout the province.
Employers are still required to ensure an employee has four consecutive hours free from work to vote on election day, or in advance polls, but casting a ballot is less of a community experience. You can take a selfie in front of the ‘I Voted’ sign at your polling station, but you probably won’t need four hours to do it.However, advance polling may give a slight advantage to the NDP this time around because the party has an experienced team ready to get voters to the polls.
“The NDP know who their people are. The special circumstances this year are a Conservative party that is still a question mark, we don’t know how much of the Liberal apparatus the Conservatives have inherited,” said Johnston. Turnout for each of the first three days of advance voting this year broke the previous daily record for advance votes cast, set in 2017 with 126,941 advance votes in a single day. 171,381 people cast their ballot on the first day of advance voting this year — the most voters ever on an advance voting day in a B.C. election…
“On Oct. 10, 2024, we had the highest advance voting day we’ve ever seen, around 170,000.”…Source: vancouversun.com/