Saturday is the last day you can vote anywhere before next week’s election.
Until 8 p.m. Friday and until 6 p.m. Saturday, you can visit any returning office, community poll or advance poll to cast your ballot.
For the last two days of voting, you’ll have to go to the returning office for your electoral district.
That’s Monday until 6 p.m. and Tuesday until 8 p.m., when polls close and votes are counted.
You can register to vote when you go to cast your ballot. Although you do not need an ID to register, Elections Nova Scotia says it helps to bring one.
Early voting numbers are also down overall compared to the 2021 election.
Our newsroom spoke to some people in Dartmouth, where they had mixed opinions.
Trevor Parsons says he may spoil his ballot because he’s not happy with either the Progressive Conservatives or the Liberals, and the NDP recently let him down on an issue he thinks is very important.
“I’ve always voted. For the first time in my life, I probably will spoil my ballot,” he said.
Lloyd McLean, whose riding is Pictou West, says he probably won’t vote at all.
He says that by calling a snap election, the premier is making it harder for voters to go to the polls.
“I’m assuming that in a democracy, you want people to vote, so if we see low vote voting turnout, well, that shows that it’s not working. It’s voter suppression due to a snap election,” said McLean.
He added that a snap election also doesn’t give the other parties enough time to find quality candidates in some areas.
Jordan Schelew says some people might decide not to vote, but it doesn’t make any sense if they later complain about political issues.
“I just always vote. That’s just the way it’s always been. I’ve never considered the idea of not voting, because if you’re not voting, you’re not having a say in anything that’s going on around you,” said Schelew.
Even if you don’t like anyone running, someone has to be the less bad than the others, he added.
Florence MacDougall says she’s been a Liberal her whole life so she’s keeping the trend going this year.
But she’s worried about the low voter turnout and that people didn’t have enough time to get to know their candidates. She says she voted for Pam Cooley, the Liberal candidate in Dartmouth North.
“Couldn’t tell you what she looked like,” said MacDougall.
The turnout was also not very high for the recent municipal election, either, says Barbara Anderson. She thinks everyone should vote, because it’s ridiculous such a small population of voters will decide who makes political decisions that affect her.
“And I’m especially voting this time, because I think it’s beyond cynical for a politician to call an election counting on a low voter turnout,”she said.
“I don’t quite have a word for it, but ‘sketchy’ comes to mind.”
