No one will be able to blame P.E.I.’s provincial candidates if they’re caught fanning themselves while waiting for today’s election results to pour in.
Decision 15
It may not be just a nervous sweat, as Environment Canada has a sunny forecast with a high of 15 C when Islanders cast their final ballots to decide who will govern P.E.I. for the next four years.
It means that the final and deciding day of the 2015 provincial election will also be the hottest, literally and figuratively, for candidates and their campaigns.
Polls will open at 9 a.m. across the province and will close at 7 p.m.
Close to 26,000 Islanders, or 30 per cent of P.E.I.’s 94,678 confirmed voters, participated in the three advance polls leading to the provincial election.
During an interview with The Guardian, P.E.I. chief electoral officer Gary MacLeod said he hoped the advance poll participation will translate into a high voter turnout on Monday’s official election day.
“The turnout has been higher than what we had expected,” said MacLeod. “It’s good to see the numbers up. We’ll see what happens on election day (today), but it’s promising that the numbers are high.”
It’s also a hope that voter turnout will exceed the last provincial election in 2011, which at 76.4 per cent was the lowest since at least 1966.
The only time since then where P.E.I., which has a very high voter turnout, has seen participation drop below 80 per cent was in 1982 (at 78.2 per cent).
MacLeod said Elections P.E.I. will compile demographic data from voters at each individual poll this year in an attempt to make targeted improvements on voter turnout.
A list of polling locations can be found online at www.electionspei.ca
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