45% turnout at 5:30 p.m. | “At least we will have done our duty”

It’s voting day. The Press went to meet voters in four must-watch ridings in the greater Montreal area. At 5:30 p.m. on Monday, nearly 45% of Quebecers registered on the electoral list had exercised their right to vote.

Frederik-Xavier Duhamel
The Press

Henri Ouellette-Vezina
The Press

It was quiet in the early afternoon at Collège André-Grasset, one of the polling stations in the riding of Maurice-Richard, in the north of the island of Montreal. Voters showed up a few at a time at regular intervals, about a hundred since the start of the day, according to an employee of Elections Quebec on the spot.

Suzanne has followed the campaign little, and she has made her choice for a while. What concerns her are “services to the population”, she says before entering to vote. Health, education? “All that,” she replies tit for tat. “Makes me, the tax cuts…” she continues, making it clear that she’s not impressed.

At the Marcel-Giroux Community Center in Verdun, a small queue was created in the morning, but it quickly disappeared, according to an employee.

It was important to vote for Johanne, who exercised her right in another office and is at the Community Center for other reasons. “If we don’t vote, I mean, we may criticize, but at least we will have done our duty,” she said.

45% turnout at 5:30 p.m.

Shortly before 6 p.m. on Monday, the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec (DGEQ) indicated that 44.63% of Quebec voters had placed their ballot in the ballot box. The riding of Chapleau, in the Outaouais, was however unable to provide a turnout at this time. Further updates should be made during the evening. Polling stations are open until 8 p.m. Monday.

As of 4 p.m. in the last general election, 41% of voters had voted. In total, the participation rate was 66.45%. At that time, approximately 6.1 million voters were registered. This year, they are more than 6.3 million to be.

This year, at the end of September, the craze for advance voting was clearly confirmed, when in two days, more than one voter in five had already exercised their right to vote, a marked increase compared to to 2018. It was then the first time that the 20% mark was crossed in this regard. More precisely, 22.92% of voters voted in advance this year.

In 2018, 17.93% of voters voted in advance, counting those same two days as well as votes recorded on campuses and at returning offices in each riding. This is therefore an increase of almost 5% compared to four years ago.

Direction South Shore

On the South Shore, the polling station on rue de la Place-du-Commerce, in Brossard, was by far the liveliest on our itinerary. The tellers in the Laporte constituency are not idle, and turnover is fluid despite the configuration of the premises, which one official describes as “all crooked”.

Paul followed the campaign closely, and he spoke with his wife before making his choice. “When they talked about immigration, it touched me a lot,” he says, having himself immigrated to Quebec from Laos at the age of 7. He still cares about the words of Jean Boulet, CAQ candidate and former Minister of Immigration, who declared that 80% of newcomers do not work, do not speak French or do not adhere to Quebec values. “It shocked me,” he said as he left the office.

The choice was not easy for Tracey, met at the same place, and she decided recently. “I’m an Anglophone, it was difficult to make a decision,” she said. The most important thing was to choose “someone who will represent the English-speaking community,” adds the mother.

Last stop in the neighboring riding, Marie-Victorin. Samuel and Florence came to vote together at the Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue Cocathedral Museum in Longueuil. They “a little” followed the campaign, but they already knew who they were going to vote for. Their priority? “Especially the environment,” replies Florence, and Samuel agrees.