Returning Officer for the Prince Albert riding Barry Hollick points to the large geographical area that he is responsible for. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

Early Bird Voters

Advance voting numbers well up for Prince Albert riding

Oct 18, 2019 | 4:04 PM

Advance polling numbers are out from Elections Canada and they’re up in a big way in our region.

In the Prince Albert riding 46 per cent more people than last time voted in advance for a total of 9,586. In the 2015 election 6,521 voted ahead of Election Day.

Returning Officer for the riding Barry Hollick puts the successful numbers down to the longer voting hours.

“Last election we were 12 p.m. until 8 p.m. [but] this year we had extended hours 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for the four days through the Thanksgiving weekend,” Hollick told paNOW. “Obviously people came out, and to go up by 46 per cent must be because of those extended hours.”

In the Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River riding the turn out for advance polls was up 21 per cent at 5,045 compared to the 4,179 who showed up at the ballot box last time.

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A total of 149,043 people voted in advance polls across the province, which is a 62 per cent increase over the 91,891 early votes in 2015.

The national rate of increase for advance voting was 29 per cent at 4.7 million people.

Voting Day is Monday Oct. 21, from 7:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. in Saskatchewan.

paNOW and northeastNOW will have extensive coverage and there will be a special live radio show networked across all the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group stations starting at 8 p.m. It will feature special guests, live reports, and results as they come in and word from our local candidates.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow