Statistics Show Advanced Polls a Major Key in 2015 Election

The 42^nd general election that saw Justin Trudeau win a majority government is estimated to have cost $443.0 million.

This meant approximately $17.04 for each register voter, compared to the $11.94 per voter during the last election. The increase is mostly due to the longer election calendar, a fourth day of advance polls, and an increased number of election workers due to the high voter turnout.

A total of 4,946 advanced polls were set up in Canada between October 9^th and the 12^th. A total of 3,677,217 electors used the advanced polls, which represented 20.8 per cent of all electors. During the 41^st election only 2,111,542 electors cast a vote during advanced polls. That means 2015 saw a 74 per cent increase when it came to advanced polls.

Voter turnout was the highest it’s been in 20 years with 68 per cent of registered electors voting. During the last election 61.1 per cent voted. Elections Canada estimates that there were 26,808,942 eligible voters in Canada for the 2015 election.

As the world turns more digital the online voter registration service saw 301,000 online transactions. Out of the 301,000, 70 per cent of online users were under 45-years-old.

More than 1.7 million Canadians checked online whether they were registered to vote and 77,000 electors requested a registration certificate online for faster service to be able to check the box on Election Day.

There were 11,000 written complaints about the 2015 election.

When it came to complaints Elections Canada received 1,353,700 phone calls about the elections. About 160,000 callers used the self-service options to receive the information, while 254,500 calls went to the national call centre, local officers took another 916,200 calls, and 17,500 calls were taken by agents supporting special ballot voting.

This year new online feedback forms were launched. Between August 2^nd and November 6^th, Elections Canada received 40,600 written communications, of which 11,000 were complaints. As of the beginning of 2016 7,700 complaint files have been closed.

Most of the complaints were related to how voters were treated at the polls by workers, the location of the polls, long lineups, and the voting process.

Other less common complaints people had were about administration of the election, voter registrations, and the list of electors. Election workers also filed complaints themselves, mostly about delays in receiving payment.