Advance voter turnout jumps almost 19% from last Ontario election

Hundreds of thousands of Ontario voters aren’t waiting around to cast their ballot in this year’s hotly-contested election, according to preliminary figures released by Elections Ontario.

About 768,895 of 10.2 million eligible voters cast ballots at advance polls between May 26 and June 1, Elections Ontario reports. That’s an 18.8 per cent increase from 2014, when an estimated 647,261 voters turned up at advance polls.

Advance polls are now closed. But eligible voters who can’t cast a ballot on June 7 still have the option of voting by special ballot at a returning office or through a home visit until Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET.

Elections Ontario, an independent office of the Ontario legislature that’s set to spend $126 million to run the 2018 vote, says new technology made advance voting easier this time around.