The University of Manitoba campus’s advanced polling station stayed open over a span of three days—Sept. 30 to Oct. 2—during which 290 people cast ballots for Winnipeg’s 2014 municipal election.

The station was located in room 112 on the main floor of University Centre – off the tunnel to the Engineering Building. Polls were open from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 30 and Thursday, Oct. 2 and from 12:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1.

A polling station set up at the U of M over a span of two days for the 2010 municipal election saw a similar turnout, with 293 people having voted. Marc Lemoine, senior election official for the City of Winnipeg’s city clerk’s department, provided the voter turnout figures to the Manitoban.

Advanced polling stations were identified as a success story in the 2010 municipal election when 30,000 people showed up to vote before the day of the election, doubling the number of advanced voters compared to the 2006 municipal election and accounting for approximately 15 per cent of the total ballots cast in the 2010 election.

This time around the voter turnout increased slightly while the number of advanced ballots cast stayed the same, sitting just above 30,000.

At advanced polling stations – branded “vote – anywhere” locations by the city – people were able to cast ballots regardless of which ward and school division they would be casting ballots for. Normally voters are required to go to a specific polling station where ballots are cast for the local candidates. This model was meant to encourage increased voter participation.

However, no polling stations were set up at the U of M on the day of the election.