A total of 3.6 million Canadians voted in last weekend’s advanced polls, up 71 per cent from the 2011 election’s advanced polls. In British Columbia alone, 507,920 voters hit the polls.

Here in the Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola riding, there were a total of 13,680 voters. That’s almost as many as the 14,224 who voted in the Kamloops–Thompson–Cariboo riding. The provincial  riding with the highest turnout was Victoria with 17,501 electors showing up.

Elections Canada spokesperson Diane Benson said the agency was not prepared for the onslaught of voters. They ran out of ballots in the final hour of voting this past Monday evening.

The number of ballots given to each polling station was decided based on twice the amount of ballots during advanced polls in the 2011 federal election, she wrote in a statement.

“While Elections Canada did plan for increased interest in the advance polls for the 42nd general election, some electoral districts experienced substantially more voting activity than was anticipated, and ran short of ballots,” she wrote.

Benson said the option was available for the returning officer to get local printers to make more ballots.

In the case of Merritt’s polling station, however, she said there wasn’t enough time.

“The returning officer diligently informed Elections Canada of the situation, and was advised that if they did not have time or access to equipment to complete photocopies within the last hour of voting, poll officials could inquire with electors to determine, out of the electors present, which ones would be unable to vote Oct. 19,” wrote Benson.

“Those electors who identified themselves as unable to vote on Oct. 19 were invited to vote by special ballot at the local Elections Canada office.  All electors who were in line, and wished to do so, were offered this option, and did cast their ballots by special ballot.”