Voters leave mark in record numbers

If the first day of voting at advance polls is any indication, a record number of people will mark their "X" prior to Tuesday's BC election.

Photo: Ragnar Haagen - Castanet

Susan Holtzman casts her ballot at the advance poll set up at Kelowna International Airport Wednesday

Figures released by Elections BC show nearly 107,000 people cast ballots on the opening day of advance voting Wednesday - more than half the people who voted during all four days in 2005 and better than a third of the 290,220 who voted all four days in 2009.

Typically, the turnout for the first day of advance polling is stronger than the next three days.

Throughout the province, 106,837 votes were cast. That works out to 3.4 per cent of the 3.1M eligible voters.

In 2009, 83,405 votes were cast on day one which worked out to 2.8 per cent of eligible voters.

In the Okanagan, voters in both the Vernon-Monashee and Penticton ridings turned out in droves as about 5 per cent of eligible voters seized the opportunity to cast their ballot in each riding.

The five Okanagan riding broke down this way during voting Wednesday:

In 2009, the first day of advance polling looked like this in the Okanagan.

Figures for Thursday's second day of voting will be available later on Friday.

Advance polls are open today (Friday) and Saturday from 8 a.m until 8 p.m.

Click here for a complete list of advance polling stations.