It appears most ballots cast in Canada's 44th election will be in person.
According to Elections Canada, only approximately 1.3 million mail voting packages were requested by Canadians for today's federal election.
Elections Canada says during its early pandemic planning, it was estimated roughly four to five million electors would choose to vote by special ballot. They increased their capacity to handle those volumes.
In mid-August, its analysis showed between two to three million Canadians might choose to vote by special ballot, mostly by mail.
Less than one million have been returned as of today (Sept. 20), with records showing Elections Canada has only received 932,605.
The deadline to request a ballot was Sept. 14.
In Burnaby South, data shows as of today, 5,367 special voting packages were requested by residents in the riding, with so far 3,548 being returned.
Burnaby North-Seymour voters requested 4,606 packages, with only 2,923 returned to date.
While mail-in packages may have seen low numbers, advance polling increase in both Burnaby ridings.
There were 17,383 votes completed in Burnaby North-Seymour during advance voting between Sept. 10 to 13, 2021, compared to 13,342 votes in 2019.
Burnaby South saw a slight increase this year with 13,442 confirmed ballots, up from 13, 329.
