Advance voting ends with lengthy lines: more than 90,000 more absentee ballots than in 2000
Tuesday marked the end of advance voting for Sunday’s municipal elections. Much as expected, it also brought out the largest daily numbers turning up to vote at post offices.
A total of 211,755 people cast their vote in advance on Tuesday, swelling the overall total to 930,769. This is nearly 90,000 more votes than in 2000 at the last municipal elections, and represents 22.7% of the electorate.
Women were very much in the majority, with 529,660 of those choosing to vote in advance being of the fairer sex.
This is in line with a trend observed in municipal elections in recent years, where women have generally been more active than men. In 2000, for example, the difference in voter activity between women and men was 3.8%-points in favour of the women.
In spite of some optimism that the larger advance voting figures could signify an upturn in overall turnout from the record-low of 2000 (when only 55.9% bothered to cast their vote), it is by no means certain that such conclusions can be drawn.
Recent elections across the board have shown that voting beforehand is becoming an increasingly popular technique, as people prefer to do other things with their election Sunday and no longer seem to find the ritual of "going out to vote" such an attraction.
Helsingin Sanomat
