Thousands of voters have already cast their ballots in ridings in the Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows area, according to Elections BC numbers.
Advanced voting concluded on Wednesday, Oct. 21.
In the Maple Ridge-Mission riding, 8,847 ballots have already been cast out of a total of 47,402 registered voters.
In Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows, there were 9,941 ballots cast out of 45,095 registered voters.
In the 2017 election, 26,200 ballots were cast in Maple Ridge-Mission, and 26,886 in Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows. That would mean close to a third of all likely ballots have already been cast.
That does not include the votes cast by mail.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, voting by mail has expanded dramatically.
In Maple Ridge-Mission, 11,799 mail-in ballots have been issued, and in Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows, it’s 9,088.
However, not all of those ballots are likely to be counted.
It is possible to get a mail-in ballot and ignore it, voting at an early or election day polling place.
Mailed in ballots won’t be counted until Nov. 6, the day the final council by Elections BC begins.
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