Early voter turnout is way up from Nova Scotia's last election

Welcome toCBC's Election Notebook, your source for regular updatesandessential news from the campaign trail.

It's Day 14of Nova Scotia's 31-day provincial election campaign.

With the candidate nomination deadline now passed, Elections Nova Scotia has started releasing statistics about the number of votes cast and so far those numbers are much higher than in 2017.

Twenty days before the 2017 general election, about 3,300 votes were in. As of Wednesday,the same point in this year's election, more than 10,000 voters had cast their ballots or requested a mail-in ballot.

The mail-in ballot requests numbered about 2,100 on Wednesday, which is nearly half the total number of mail-in ballotscast in 2017. It took vote counters past midnight to count all 4,500 mail-in ballots in 2017. This year, the elections agency will suspend the count at midnight to protect against the possibility of human error, meaning the final results might not be in until the next day.

Naomi Shelton, director of policy and communications at Elections Nova Scotia, said the agency was preparingfor thespike after having promoted early voting in light of COVID-19.

"We were anticipating a larger uptake in early voting, and in the write-in ballotsspecifically, based on the experience of other provinces that have had elections during the pandemic."

Shelton would not speculate whether the high early voter turnout this year has any bearing on the final turnout, but said the agency always hopes for elector participation.

Voter turnout has been steadily declining for decades. Statistics from Elections Nova Scotia show 82 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in 1960. In the 2017 general election, turnout hit an all-time low of 53 per cent.

'We have to help our women'

A candidate for the Progressive Conservatives has been getting attention for her unique campaign signs and she's thrilled about it.

Sheri Morgan, running for the seat in Halifax Citadel-Sable Island, said the idea to throw her index and middle fingers up in the shape of a 'V' in her campaign photos was bornwhen she announced to a group of friends she was going to run for political office.

"One of the girls yells and she jumps and goes, 'Yay, vote for vaginas!'"

Morgan told CBCNews she'sadvocating for quicker access to urogynecologists, specialists in pelvic floor health. Shesaid the wait to see aurogynecologistin Nova Scotia can be up to 18 months.

"We have a problem here in Nova Scotia. We have to help our women. We make of half the population. Please, help us," she said.

Morgan called the vagina one of the body's most problematic body parts because of potential ailments like endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, genital prolapse and five different types of cancer that can affect the vagina.

Morgan said she knew the backward peace sign is a rude gesture in other parts of the world,but that didn't deter her.

"In this era, in this time in Halifax, Nova Scotia," Morgan said, "it's V for vaginal health."

Morgan is running against Labi Kousoulis, who won the seat for the Liberals in 2013 and 2017, Lisa Lachance for the NDP and Noah Hollis for the Greens.

Health care continues to dominate

The leaders of all three major parties recycled health-care promises Thursday.

As he's done most weekday mornings of the election period, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston invited media to his party's offices in downtown Halifax on Thursday morning to highlight a piece of the PC platform.

With the aim of cutting down on surgical wait times, Houston said a PC government would increase open hours in operating rooms. Houston said by scheduling surgeries outside the typical Monday-Friday schedule, his party would shorten wait times to national benchmark standards within 18 months of being elected.

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The PC platform estimates the total annual cost of extending OR hours would be over $25 million. Most of that money would go to wages for physicians, nurses and other hospital staff.

The party estimates about 40 per cent of surgeons would be interested in working different hours.

Houston acknowledged there is a persistent shortage of anesthesiologists, locally and nationally, but he did not seem to think it would preclude his plan from working.

"I feel very strongly that once we send the message we're going to invest in health care, we're going to put patient care first, we're going to work with health-care professionals across the spectrum, people will want to work here. We'll get them."

Houston said he is open to permitting family doctors with appropriate training to practise anesthesia to fill gaps in service.

Houston went on to campaign around Halifax and the Eastern Shore. He's headed to Digby, Clare,Yarmouthand the Annapolis Valley onFriday.

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At a campaign stop in Chester on Thursday morning, Liberal Leader Iain Rankin rehashed his party's promise to renovate or replace about 2,300 long-term care beds, and create another 500 new beds.

Rankin said the new beds would reduce the wait time to two months from about six, but it would be years before the work is done. The Liberals have a target of 2026-27 for the first projects to be completed.

He made the comments standing outside Shoreham Village Nursing Home, one of the facilities that has been tapped for upgrades. Rankin was flanked by Kelly Regan, the Liberal candidate for Bedford Basin, and Chester-St. Margaret's candidateJacob Killawee, a recently retired naval officer who said he's been friends with Rankin since high school when they played basketball together.

Rankin campaigned throughout the South Shore on Thursday. He's scheduled to make an announcement in Bedford on Friday.

NDP Leader Gary Burrill was also talking about long-term care Thursday when he stopped in the riding of Hammonds Plains-Lucasville with NDP candidate Angela Downey.

Downey, a long-term care worker, said in a news release that she and her colleagues typically leave work at the end of a shift feeling exhausted and guilty about being unable to spend the time they'd like to spend with each patient.

"We are exhaustedbut we love what we do. We are working longer with less support, we are caring for seniors with more complex needs. In the pandemicthe Liberals called us heroes, but since then nothing has really changed," said Downey.

Burrill said anNDP government would set a minimum standard of 4.1 hours of care per resident each day and 1.3 hours of nursing care. The PCs have made the same promise. The Liberals did not mention care hours in their health-care platform.

Burrill departed from Lucasville for Lunenburg, where he campaigned Thursday afternoon. He'll be back in the Halifax area Friday.

How to vote

Checkwhether you are registered to vote with Elections Nova Scotia.

Once registered, you can vote in advance of election day by requesting a mail-in ballot or by visiting a returning office or advance polling station.

On election day, polling stations will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. AT.

More information on voting is available fromelectionsnovascotia.ca.

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