The voting station in Steinbach was packed with voters as of 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Senior Election Official Deb Rempel reports that up to 6:00 p.m., 3,610 people had come in to cast their ballots. When combined with the 600 people who voted at advance polls last week, the number stands at about 4,200 or roughly 44% of eligible voters. Polls remain open until 8:00 p.m.

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Voter turnout has been huge so far in Steinbach. Senior Election Official Deb Rempel says as of 11 am, more than 1,000 people had cast their ballots. Rempel notes that is double the turnout in the first three hours of the last election four years ago. There are 9,965 eligible voters in Steinbach.

Over at the Hanover School Division polls, turnout is described as steady.

In Friedensfeld, workers there say advance voting was triple what it was in the last election. However, that so far hasn't carried over into election day. Between 8 am and 12 pm, there were 64 people who came in to vote.

In La Broquerie, Senior Election Official Henry Turenne says by 1 pm, there were between 300 and 400 voters that walked through the doors. Turenne says he expects that number to continue growing as the result of how many people are running in this election. Of the 4,700 possible voters in La Broquerie, Turenne is hoping for a voter turnout of at least 40 per cent. In the last election, voter turnout was 35 per cent.

In the RM of Ste. Anne, Assistant Senior Election Official Tiana Bohemier says she has never seen voters more engaged. After what she calls an unfortunate election in the United States, Bohemier notes many voters seem to care more about who represents them. As of 2 pm, just over 200 people have voted in the municipality. Bohemier expects that number to continue to rise.

Polls close this evening at 8 pm. We expect results to begin rolling in around 9 pm. Results can be found on our 2018 Municipal Elections page.