The epic October federal election campaign, by the numbers

OTTAWA – Canada’s chief electoral officer says last year’s marathon federal election cost $443 million to administer, and that’s before all the expense rebates are paid. A few more campaign numbers:

— At 78 days, it was the longest federal campaign in more than 140 years.

— Voter turnout was 68 per cent, up from 61.1 per cent in 2011 and the highest in 20 years.

— There were 26,044,131 eligible voters in 2015, compared with 24,257,592 in 2011. Of those eligible, 17,711,983 voted in 2015, compared with 14,823,408 in 2011.

— Voting at advance polls was up 74 per cent from the 2011 election, with 3,677,217 votes cast, compared with 2,111,542. There was an extra day of advance polling in October and polls were held over the Thanksgiving long weekend.

— During the campaign, Elections Canada had 285,000 temporary workers staffing 67,000 polling stations in 15,500 polling places.