Kingston & The Islands No. 1 at advanced polls

When it comes to advance voting, Kingston and The Islands is the top riding in the province.

Elections Ontario has released preliminary data from the advance polls showing this riding had the highest pre-election “voter turnout” than anywhere else in the province.

More than 11,600 people chose to vote early.

“One of the things that it tells me is that the voters here are engaged,” said Kathy Brock from the department of political studies at Queen’s University. “In a way, that’s not surprising because it is a public-sector town.”

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The 2018 Kingston and The Islands’ advance poll numbers were up from the last provincial election four years ago. At that time, nearly 9,500 cast their ballots.

However, it may not be fair to compare as the riding had different boundaries back then. Brock says when it comes to advanced polls, people like the flexibility.

“So often, they’re going to the advance polls and then on election day, it’s a little bit disappointing when you see the turnout. So I’ll be very interested in watching to see if that’s become the pattern.”

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Almost 770,000 Ontarians have already voted ahead of Thursday’s election.

Voters can still cast an early ballot at the Kingston and The Islands election returning office at the former Sears store at the Cataraqui Centre until Wednesday at 6 p.m.