More than a quarter of all registered voters have already cast their provincial election ballots in early voting in the three Langley-area ridings, according to Elections BC data.
Advance voting took place between Oct. 10-13 and Oct. 15-16 across B.C., with one or two advance polling places in each local riding. People could also cast early ballots at their district electoral office.
The early voting numbers for the three local ridings were:
Langley-Abbotsford: 11,051 early votes, 42,788 registered voters
Langley-Walnut Grove: 10,353 early votes, 41,360 registered voters
Langley-Willowbrook: 11,139 early votes, 40,599 registered voters.
That means 25.8 per cent of known registered voters have cast their ballots in Langley-Abbotsford, 25.03 per cent in Langley-Walnut Grove, and 27.4 per cent in Langley-Willowbrook.
The heaviest day for voting was the last day advance polls were open, Wednesday, Oct. 16.
On that day, 3,005 people cast ballots in Langley-Abbotsford, 2,377 in Langley-Walnut Grove, and 2,827 in Langley-Willowbrook.
With an atmospheric river forecast to hit B.C. starting on Friday, the weather on the general election day of Saturday, Oct. 19 is expected to be stormy.
The total number of registered voters in each riding may go up once the final votes are tallied, as the current data only reflects people who were registered as of Oct. 7. It is possible for residents of the riding to register at the polls.
Since not every registered voter will cast a ballot – voter turnout B.C.-wide was just 53.86 per cent in 2020 and 61.18 per cent in 2017 – a significant portion of the votes for this election have likely already been cast.
Province-wide, 1,001,331 voters cast their ballots early this year, out of 3,550,017 voters registered as of Oct. 7.
