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Albertans came out in droves to cast their ballots in advance polls ahead of the Oct. 19 federal election, more than doubling the advance turnout in the last national campaign.

Preliminary figures released by Elections Canada Wednesday show that 358,830 Albertans voted in the four-day advance voting period that ran from last Friday to Monday.

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In the 2011 election, 160,199 provincial residents voted in advance polls.

Elections Canada spokeswoman Leanne Nyirfa said it’s difficult to make comparisons to previous years in that the number of eligible voters has grown and there was an additional day for advanced polling this time around.

“We know that advance polls were very busy. I think that’s clear,” she said.

“But we can’t comment on whether voting day will be as busy or busier than last time.”

Nationally, 3.6 million Canadians cast their ballot early, compared to 2.1 million in 2011.

Among Alberta’s 34 ridings, advance turnout was the highest in Banff-Airdrie, which had 15,346 voters, and Edmonton-Wetaskiwin, which saw 15,047 ballots cast.

Calgary Rocky Ridge had the most votes cast among city ridings — 13,607 — while Calgary Skyview’s 5,240 was the lowest amount in both the city and the province.

jwood@calgaryherald.com