Early voting in the South Okanagan West Kootenay riding is on track to match increases seen elsewhere in the province, despite what the preliminary data released by Elections Canada shows.
That data, released earlier this week, showed the riding with less than half the turnout of the previous general election in 2019.
In a response to questions from Black Press, Elections Canada clarified the situation and once again reiterated that the numbers were preliminary.
“In the case of South Okanagan-West Kootenay, the data hasn’t been fully uploaded yet. The Returning Office reports that they believe their numbers will be up significantly over 2019, and that they had over 10,000 votes cast in Penticton alone,” Elections Canada said.
The data still displayed on Elections Canada’s website shows that only 10,217 votes are currently registered for the riding, compared to the 20,636 cast in 2019.
Other nearby ridings saw their numbers increase, such as Central Okanagan – Similkameen – Nicola which rose to 25,953 from 20,469 and Kootenay – Columbia which rose to 27,330 from 19,856.
READ MORE: Early voting plummets in South Okanagan – West Kootenay riding
The previous election in 2019 saw a total of 68,196 votes registered in the South Okanagan – West Kootenay riding over the entire election, including mail-in ballots and ballots cast on voting day.
In 2015, there were a total of 66,594 votes over the entire election.
General election day is Monday, Sept. 20. Five candidates are running in the election; incumbent NDP candidate Richard Cannings, Conservative Helena Konanz, Green Party Tara Howse, Liberal Ken Roberston and PPC Sean Taylor.
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