Nearly 40,000 people cast advance ballots

Almost 40,000 New Brunswickers lined up to cast their ballots in advance polling stations across the province on Saturday and Monday.

Elections New Brunswick says its unofficial two-day tally of advance voters is 38,558, which is up considerably from the nearly 26,000 people who voted earlyin 2008.

Advance voting stations were open on Saturday and Monday in communities across New Brunswick.

The provinces largest urban centres, such as Saint John, Fredericton, Moncton, Dieppe, Riverview and Edmundston, continued to experience the highest levels of advance voting.

"We hope this indicates a strong interest in the May elections and the importance of these grassroots positions," said Mike Quinn, the provinces chief electoral officer.

Some smaller communitieswith hotly-contested races, such as Caraquet, St. Stephen and Grand Manan,also witnessed strong voter turnout on Saturday.

Grand Manan is also the only municipality that is holding a local plebiscite.

On Saturday, 2,698 voters showed up to the advance polls in the Madawaska region, which includes Edmundston. As well, 2,635 advance voters turned out in Riverview and Dieppe on Saturday.

Saint John also had a strong voter turnout on Saturday. There were 1,851 people voting in the advance polls.

New Brunswickers willelect local councils, district education council representatives and members to regional health authorities on May 14.