Advance voting over last 4 days shatters records, Elections Canada says [Video]

The number of people who took advantage of advance voting in the federal election has shattered records, Elections Canada reported Tuesday.

Preliminary figures released by the agency that organizes federal elections show an estimated 7.3 million ballots were cast over the four-day advance polling period, which overlapped with the Easter holiday weekend and ended Monday.

The numbers mark a 25 per cent increase from the 5.85 million advance votes cast in the 2021 election, according to Elections Canada.

“We’ve had a record-breaking number,” Dugald Maudsley, a regional media advisor at Elections Canada, said in an interview.

Final numbers are expected to be reported late Tuesday, including breakdowns by province and territory, a spokesperson told Global News.

The news release announcing the preliminary numbers noted some polling stations “may not have reported yet.”

As of Sunday, Elections Canada saysover 754,000 special ballot voting kits have been returned either by mail or to Elections …