Thousands of Sudburians have already voted in the June 2 election

Advance voting is underway in Sudbury and officials with Elections Ontario say Sudburians are taking advantage and coming out to cast their ballots early.

“Yes, it’s been quite busy,” said Sudbury Electoral District returning officer Joe Shaw.

“We’ve had thousands of people come out to advance vote and we’re hoping to have thousands more to make it so much easier on you and others on election day.”

Advance voting opened May 19. There are five locations where residents can vote before election day June 2.

The returning office is located in the New Sudbury Centre at the Old Sport Chek location at the back of the mall. Other options are Carmichael Arena, Le Club Amical on Lasalle Boulevard, Delky Dozzi Park Club House and Glad Tidings Church.

“We know everybody has a life and can be quite busy on election day," said Shaw.

"Maybe you’re going away to your cottage or beginning your vacation, stuff like that. So we want to have as many opportunities for people to vote … The slogan for Elections Ontario is we make voting easy.”

He said that even if people don’t have their voter's card on them, all they need is a piece of ID.

“Anybody can vote that belongs to the Sudbury Electoral District, anybody can vote at any location right now," Shaw said.

"That’s one of the great parts of advance voting is you can go to any one. It makes it very convenient."

But on election day, residents will have to go to their local voting station.

“Please make sure that you look at your voter information card, your VIC card, to find out where your poll is that you can vote at," Shaw said.

"If you don’t have your voter card, go on the elections site … you can use your current postal code and that will tell you where you’re supposed to vote."

It's important to vote at the right spot because there are two ridings in the city. A section of the south end is part of Nickel Belt.

"The boundaries are different so please make sure you’re going to the right place,” he said.

“We have lots of ways that we can help you and assist for people that have mobility issues and accessibility issues where we can do home visits. We can assist you here at the returning office if you make an appointment to come in and we can serve everybody so that they can vote.”

Advance polls close on Saturday.