If voter turnout at advance polls is any indication, there is a lot more interest in this federal election than the previous one in 2019.

Advance polls were held this past Friday through Monday. Marie-France Kenny with Elections Canada says an estimated 5.78 million votes were cast across the country during those four days. That is an increase of more than 18 per cent from 2019, when there were about 4.88 million votes cast.

In Manitoba, the increase is even more significant. Kenny says voter turnout at advance polls was nearly 57 per cent higher than in 2019.

In Portage-Lisgar, Kenny says there were 13,500 advance votes, compared to nearly 6,000 in 2019 for an increase of 128 per cent. And to the east in Provencher, there were approximately 14,300 ballots cast during the four days of advance polls this year, up from 8,500 in 2019. That is an increase of about 65 per cent.

"I believe that's the highest increase in the country," she notes.

So, what prompted the higher voter turnout?

"There is no indication," says Kenny. "We are in a pandemic, so it's going to be a different election I think in every way of voting for this election."

Meanwhile, the deadline has now passed for those wishing to vote by mail. According to Kenny, there were just over 1.2 million kits ordered from those residing within their electoral district, outside their electoral district and even outside the country.

According to Kenny, counting the mail-in votes will delay the results of the election. That is because mail-in votes are not counted on election night.

"They will all be looked at after Tuesday morning," she stresses. "On the night of the election, poll workers will be counting the votes that were cast in person on election day and advance polls."

Kenny says results are never final until all the documents have been signed and judicial recounts have been done, which sometimes can take several months.