Photo courtesy of Elections Canada via elections.caPhoto courtesy of Elections Canada via elections.ca
Chatham

Canadians head to the polls for Election Day

It's Election Day in Canada, and the polls open at 9:30 a.m.

Canadians will have 12 hours to vote for their next Member of Parliament.

Where to vote is written on your voter information card, but you can also find your polling station online on the Elections Canada website.

Electors are advised to bring their voter information card with them to the polling station.

Even if you don't have a voter information card, you can cast a ballot by showing two pieces of government identification like your health card and driver's license or passport.

Elections Canada has warned Canadians full results may not be available on Monday night because of an expected increase in the number of mail-in ballots.

Elections Canada said just over one million mail-in ballots were requested, far below earlier estimates between 2.3-million and 4.3-million. That is still a significant increase from the 2019 federal election when only 50,000 were requested, most of them from voters living abroad.

Election officials start counting mail-in ballots on Tuesday morning, and Chief Electoral Officer Stephane Perrault has said it could take two days, maybe five in some parts of the country.

If voter turnout at the advance polls is any indication, polling stations could be busy. Across Canada, voter turnout was up over 18 per cent. Locally, it increased considerably. In Chatham-Kent-Leamington, the number of people who cast an early ballot was up 55.6 per cent while advance voter turnout was up about 41 per cent in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex.

BlackburnNews.com will provide online coverage of the federal election on Monday night and stay with the story until full results are known.

There will also be updates on-air on Country 92.9FM / 630 CFCO starting when the polls close.

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