Advance polling closes at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. (Metro Creative Graphic)

Advance polling closes at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. (Metro Creative Graphic)

B.C. VOTES 2020: Last day to cast early vote in Vernon

More than 15 per cent of eligible Vernon voters cast ballot in advance polling

  • Oct. 21, 2020 12:00 a.m.

Today is the last day to mark an X beside a candidate’s name in the advance polls in Vernon.

Election day is Saturday, Oct. 24, but already 15 per cent of Vernon-Monashee constituents have cast their vote.

By end of day Tuesday, 8,145 of more than 52,000 registered voters took advantage of the advance polling stations in Vernon and Lumby.

Elections BC reported 26 per cent of eligible voters across the province have already cast a vote. At least 347,900 mail-in voting packages were reported returned by 11:59 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 21, which accounts for almost half of the vote-by-mail ballots issued.

Advance voting continues today until 8 p.m. Votes can be cast at the Halina Seniors Centre, Schubert Centre and White Valley Community Centre in Lumby.

Candidates running in the Vernon-Monashee riding:

Kyle Defling, BC Conservative candidate

Eric Foster, BC Liberals candidate

Harwinder Sandhu, BC NDP candidate

Keli Westgate, BC Greens candidate

For those in Armstrong and Enderby voting in the Shuswap riding, advance polling stations are open at the Armstrong Odd Fellows Hall, Desert Cove Rec Centre and Enderby Senior’s Centre.

Candidates running the Shuswap riding:

Greg Kyllo, BC Liberal Party

Sylvia Lindgren, BC NDP

Owen Madden, BC Green Party

READ MORE: Shuswap candidates share plans for economic recovery

District electoral offices will be open until 8 p.m. Wednesday, due to advanced voting, and open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday. They will be open until 4 p.m. for in-person voting (until 8 p.m. for mail-in ballot drop-off) on Election Day Saturday.

For voters who haven’t sent their mail-in ballot yet, Elections BC recommends no longer mailing it but dropping it off at advanced voting, a district electoral office or at Service BC locations, some of which have a 24-7 dropbox.

For a list of Service BC locations and dropboxes, visit: https://elections.bc.ca/docs/service-bc-locations.pdf. Mail-in ballots can also be dropped off at a polling station or a district electoral office on Election Day until 8 p.m.

All hours are Pacific Standard Time.

READ MORE: B.C. VOTES 2020: Enderby all-candidates forum takes video format

READ MORE: B.C. VOTES 2020: Advance voting begins today in Vernon

Vernon Morning Star