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The Elections Ontario office for Sault Ste. Marie has been a busy place ahead of Thursday’s provincial election, with many local voters casting their ballots in advance.
“Right now, overall, we’ve had over 5,900 for the whole city. That's a 9.8 per cent turnout (of eligible voters),” said Brian Stinson, Elections Ontario returning officer for the electoral district of Sault Ste. Marie.
“We've already served 352 voters today,” Stinson told SooToday on Tuesday afternoon.
“We're the only place left until election day for advanced voting so we've expanded our capabilities. We added three special ballot officers to serve electors here,” Stinson said.
Advanced voting at the Elections Ontario office for Sault Ste. Marie (in Station Mall, beside Eddie Bauer) continues until 8 p.m. Tuesday and ends at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
Advanced voting was also available at Bethany Baptist Church, the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre, The Indigenous Friendship Centre and The Salvation Army from Feb. 20 to 22.
“It’s promising that we're going to have a great turnout this year. Two-thirds of our regular polls are in elementary schools on election day and they’re having a PD day.
"That should be good as far as facilitating electors getting into the schools because we have to have somebody at the door to let people in and keep people flowing. I'm positive we're going to have a pretty good turnout in the Sault,” Stinson said.
Voting locations can be found at elections.on.ca and on the voter information cards Elections Ontario sent out earlier this month, he said.
You don’t need a Voting Information Card (VIC) in the mail to cast your vote, but you must bring one piece of identification showing both your name and home address to register and receive a ballot.
To be eligible to vote, you must be:
- 18 years of age or older
- a Canadian citizen
- a resident of Ontario
A long list of acceptable pieces of identification for those with or without a Voting Information Card can be viewed here.
A list of provincial election candidates for Sault Ste. Marie is below.
PC Leader Doug Ford chose Chris Scott, the first candidate who announced that he was running, without holding a local vote. Scott was announced as the PC candidate on Jan. 28.
Members of the NDP’s local riding association held a vote on Jan. 30 to choose Lisa Vezeau-Allen to be their candidate.
Gurwinder Dusanjh is the candidate for the Liberals.
Jaycob Jacques is running for the Green Party
Arnold Heino is running for the New Blue party.
The Ontario Party candidate is Paul Frolich.
Advanced voting information for the Algoma-Manitoulin riding was not immediately available Tuesday.