Parties gear up for early ballots

With advance polls opening Friday, campaign veterans say the next four days could have a big impact on which party emerges victorious on Oct. 19.

Voters can cast ballots at early polls from today until Monday, which means a long weekend of intense political activity as the federal parties deploy their ground games in force in order to shore up as much of their support as early as possible.

“This is when things get serious,” says Robin Sears, a principal at Earnscliffe Strategy Group and a former national director for the NDP.

There are signs that advance polls will be more important this year than in elections past. According to Elections Canada, more than 2.1 million Canadians — or14 per cent of the electorate — cast a ballot over the three days of early polling in 2011, up from 11 per cent in 2008.

This year, as a result of electoral reforms passed by the Conservative government, a fourth advance polling day has been added, giving Canadians even more time to vote early.

Tim Powers, a former strategist for the Conservative party, says early voting days have become so significant to election outcomes that a good campaign team will have staffers “whose sole job and raison d’être will be delivering as (many) votes as possible . . . during the advance polls.”

Sears and Powers said parties will have several objectives as they try to lock down votes this weekend. The first, and most practical goal, will be to make sure campaign workers and volunteers have cast a ballot before election day, freeing them up for the massive get-out-the-vote effort on Oct. 19.

Parties will also need to target supporters who might have trouble getting to the polls because of mobility issues, or who plan to be out of town. Hardcore supporters will be encouraged to vote early, but uncommitted yet sympathetic voters are just as important, says Sears, “because you want to get them in the bag, as it were, as quickly and securely as possible,” before they change their mind.

Sears says campaign workers will have identified which voters they need to direct to advance polls in the earliest days of the campaign. “The whole canvass machinery of all the parties is focused on making those kinds of assessments from the very first contact,” he says.

According to Don Guy, a former campaign mastermind for the provincial and federal Liberals, advance polls are also important because early turnouts provide parties with vital insight into how they’re faring in key ridings. “It gives them a sense of how they’re performing in target ridings and target polls,” he says.