Convenience equals an increase in voter turnout

Advance voting convenience CTV's KC Colby has the latest on the advance polls and how municipalities aim to increase voter turnout.

Many municipalities are aiming to make voting more convenient in the hopes that turnout will increase.

The city of Orillia has a total of five scheduled advance voting dates with close to 2,000 people having already cast a ballot.

Elections assistant Michael Ladouceur says the numbers are dramatically up over the 2014 municipal election.  “We’re up about 21 percent in our advance voter turnout.  In 2014 we had 40 percent voter turnout, so we’re always hoping to hit that, if not higher, which is about 9 to 12-thousand voters.”

To encourage voter participation, Orillia is offering free public transit on Election Day.

In Oro-Medonte the higher than normal advance turnout could be an indication of a potential record number of voters.

“So far we’ve seen a very significant turnout for our advance polls,” said Oro-Medonte city clerk Karen Way.  “We’re currently sitting at about 10 percent voter turnout in comparison to our 23 percent turnout overall, and we still have a week to go before voting.”

The city of Barrie is also offering free public transit rides on Election Day, but before that you can cast your ballot on the vote bus.  Barrie has 20 advance voting locations.

Wendy Cooke, Barrie’s city clerk, says that in the last election there were just over 15-thousand people who took part in the advance polls.  “Currently, we’re at about 3,100 for our advance voting for this year,” said Cooke.

The municipal election is on October 22.