How you can vote on election day in Nova Scotia

Provincial election day is finally upon us. Although some are still feeling the fatigue of the recent municipal election and from watching the American election, getting out to vote is still a right worth exercising.

With community and advanced polling stations closed as of Saturday, Nov 23, early voting is limited to returning offices on Monday, Nov 25. Official election day locations will be open on Tuesday, Nov 26 for people to cast their ballot, though they can also do so from their local returning office.

Voting will be open from 8am to 8pm Tuesday, and will be done with traditional paper ballots in election day locations, all viewable via the Elections Nova Scotia map tool on their website. Their new e-Ballot system will be used in returning offices on Tuesday.

For those who applied for write-in ballots in remote voting kits, they must be submitted to the returning office by 8pm Tuesday evening. Those who did apply for a write-in cannot vote using any other method as they have already been struck from the voter list. Write-in ballots can be applied for up until 3pm on Tuesday.

People voting in person are encouraged to bring a valid government-issued identification with them, but if they are without, they can take an oath to attest to their eligibility. Residents must be 18 years or older to vote in the provincial election and must have lived in Nova Scotia for at least six months before the election was called.

Elections Nova Scotia says there are 191 candidates in Nova Scotia’s 55 electoral districts. The PC Party and Liberals both have a candidate for each district, while the NDP have 54—short one candidate in Eastern Passage after Tammy Jakeman resigned from the party to run as an independent.

The Green Party are running in under half of the province’s districts with 23 candidates. The Nova Scotia United Party, who first ran a candidate in the Preston byelection last year, have no candidates running in this election.

Unofficial results from the election will be available on election night via the Elections Nova Scotia website. The independent agency says results from e-Ballot voting will roll in faster than the results from traditional day-of voting.

According to Elections Nova Scotia, a total of 147,183 votes had been cast as of Saturday, Nov 23. That number is higher than the early vote counts in 2017, which saw 112,944 ballots cast before election day. However, it’s lower than the 2021 early vote count of 166,403. There are a total of 788,427 active electors in the province according to Elections Nova Scotia.

If you have any questions about where you should be voting or about the election generally, phone the Elections NS public call centre at 1-800-565-1504.