With less than a week to go until the Municipal Election, many people across the region are jumping at the chance to vote early. “It takes about three minutes,” says Sharon Hickey, an Innisfil resident. “You just put your date of birth and your pin number and you pick your candidates so it was very easy.” Essa Township had one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the province four years ago. Its advance voting numbers look slightly better so far, despite the town only accepting paper ballots. “The township has focused on social media ads,” says Township of Essa Clerk Krista Pascoe. “We are pushing that out on a weekly basis. We have posted signs throughout the township. We’re just trying to get the information out there and all the methods that we can.” Depending on where you live, you can vote in person, online or by telephone. “A lot of municipalities have been adding new ways for people to participate in voting,” says Lindsay Jones, executive director for Association of Municipalities of Ontario. Jones says there are pockets of the province seeing a significant increase in advance polling so far. “There are a lot of encouraging signs for local democracy in Ontario this year,” Jones tells CTV News. “It’s also the case that around two-thirds of the candidates that have put their names forward across the province are new to municipal politics.” In Barrie, more than 11,000 people have already voted. “About 8.5 per cent voter turnout so far,” says City of Barrie Clerk Wendy Cooke. “We have approximately 130,000 electors in Barrie. In the last election we had just under 30 per cent voter turnout.” Election day is Monday. The polls will close at 8 p.m. Just 30 per cent of eligible voters across the province cast their ballot in the last municipal election. That was the lowest voter turnout at the municipal level since 1982.
