Advance Voting in Canada’s 2025 Election Explained
A record 7,504,283 electors cast ballots at assigned advance polls in Canada’s 2025 federal election, higher than the preliminary 7.3 million estimate released before election day.
Timeline
- 2025-04-18: Four days of advance polling began for Canada's 45th general election.
- 2025-04-21: Advance polling ended after four 12-hour voting days.
- 2025-04-22: Elections Canada released a preliminary estimate of about 7.3 million advance voters.
- 2025-04-28: Election day was held in 343 electoral districts.
Canada’s 2025 federal election set a record for voting at assigned advance polling stations. Elections Canada’s final analysis counted 7,504,283 advance-poll ballots, representing 37.9 percent of all ballots cast. The number is higher than the 7.3 million estimate reported immediately after advance voting. Both figures are official in context: 7.3 million was a preliminary operational estimate, while 7.5 million is the later final count used in the agency’s post-election analysis. [1][2][3]
Advance polls were open on Friday, April 18 through Monday, April 21, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day. Elections Canada’s April 23 table estimated 7,280,975 voters across those four days, compared with 5,852,391 valid advance votes in the 2021 election. It described the early estimate as about 25 percent higher. The table also cautioned that the 2025 data were preliminary, so it should not be substituted for the final 7,504,283 figure without that label. [1][2]
Advance voting is distinct from voting by special ballot. In 2025, 923,023 electors voted by mail or at a local office from inside their district, and another 250,302 absent electors voted through mail, local offices, military bases or correctional facilities. Canadians abroad accounted for a further 77,864 ballots. Elections Canada groups those channels with advance polls as alternative voting methods, but each uses different procedures and reporting categories. [3][4]
Together, alternative methods accounted for 8,755,472 ballots, or 44.2 percent of all ballots cast. Election-day polling stations accounted for 11,056,048, or 55.8 percent. That comparison shows that the record advance-poll number did not mean most voters cast ballots in advance, though the gap narrowed. It also prevents a common counting mistake: adding mail and local-office ballots to the 7.5 million advance-poll total and then calling the combined figure “advance-poll turnout.” [3]
The four-day advance period created operational pressure because those ballots could not ordinarily be counted until election day voting closed. With approximately 7.3 million advance voters already estimated, Elections Canada adapted counting rules to let returning officers begin some preparatory counting activity earlier while maintaining the statutory restriction against releasing results before polls closed. The change addressed workload and timely reporting; advance ballots still contributed to the same electoral-district candidate totals as ballots cast on election day. [2][5]
Access also varied by community. Elections Canada reported that 821 remote, isolated or low-density communities supported the standard four full advance days, while 156 used flexible services designed around local circumstances. Other communities used special-ballot service points or were assigned nearby locations. These arrangements help explain why a national headline total does not describe every voter’s experience or imply identical hours and travel requirements in every community. [4]
The clearest way to cite the result is therefore: about 7.3 million was the preliminary April estimate, while 7,504,283 was the final number voting at assigned advance polling stations. The latter equalled 37.9 percent of the 19,811,520 ballots included in Elections Canada’s voting-method table. These are participation figures, not party results, and they do not by themselves show why individual electors chose to vote early or whether early voting favored a particular party. [1][3]
Sources
- Elections Canada Data on Advance Polling in the 45th General Election
- Elections Canada Estimate of Turnout at Advance Polls
- Elections Canada Turnout by Age and Gender in the 45th General Election
- Elections Canada Report on Delivering the 45th General Election
- Elections Canada Adaptation for Counting Advance-Poll Votes