Voters arrive to cast their ballots at Prince Albert's East Hill Community Hall. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff) 

By Glenn Hicks

Canada Votes

Make your mark: P.A. heads to the polls on Election Day

Oct 21, 2019 | 6:00 AM

After 40 days on the campaign trail the political candidates vying for the 338 seats in the House of Commons now leave it all in the hands of the voters as Canadians across the country head to the polls today.

The Returning Officer for the Prince Albert riding, Barry Hollick, said there had been a steady stream of voters at all locations with an uptick around the lunch hour. He said there would be another surge after 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. when teachers and then office workers finished work. Also, if any elector was inside the polling station by 7:30 p.m. they would be allowed to complete the process.

Estelle Hjertaas arrived at the Midtown Hall polls by bike soon after they opened this morning.(Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

Polling stations are open 7:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. in Saskatchewan.

Randy Hoback cast his ballot at an advance poll in Shellbrook last week. (submitted/Randy Hoback)

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Hollick explained what electors needed to take to their local voting station, which is printed on voter’s cards.

“Photo ID to indicate who they are or two pieces to indicate who they are and where they live,” he told paNOW.” It’s very important they can prove their address and who they are.”

Returning Officer for the Prince Albert riding Barry Hollick said there had been a steady stream of voters through the morning with a bump around the lunch hour and a further one expected late afternoon/early evening . (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

Hollick explained electors could only vote at their specific polling station and anyone from outside the riding would no longer be able to vote. That last opportunity was on Tuesday last week. He added even if a voter is not on the voter’s list, as long as they have the necessary ID and they live in the P.A. riding they can vote. However, they will need to first call the toll-free number 1 866-304-0234 so they can be told which polling station to go to.

Harmony Johnson Harder with her husband after casting their ballot at the advance voting last week.(submitted/Harmony Johnson Harder)

There are an abundance of voting stations scattered across every part of the city of P.A. and around the whole riding where there are 152 polling sites.

Electors head into a voting station in Melfort. (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff)

“They’re really well geographically distributed. You can pretty well walk to where you have to vote,” he explained.

It’s possible there will be fewer voters headed to the polls today than in the 2015 election because of the strong turnout in the advanced polls over the Thanksgiving weekend. The Prince Albert riding saw a 46 per cent uptick in advanced votes over those four days with 9,586 votes tallied. In 2015 that number was 6,521.

Kelly Day cast her ballot at advance polling last week.(submitted/Kelly Day)

There are several voting stations around the city of PA.

Voters head into one of many polling stations in Prince Albert this morning. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

Tune in to our special election radio show on 900 CKBI beginning at 8 p.m. tonight. We’ll have political analysis, results, and interviews with the candidates.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow