Toronto Election Advance Voting: A First-Timer Guide

The 2026 Toronto election is three weeks away, and advance voting opens this week. If you have never voted in a municipal election, or skipped the last one, this is the easiest cycle to get right: there are seven days to vote in person, the voters list can still be updated online, and the ballot decides who runs the city you live in every day.

Election day for the Toronto election is Monday, October 26, 2026, with polls open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. But you do not have to wait. Advance voting runs for six straight days, from Tuesday, October 6, 2026 through Sunday, October 11, 2026, at 50 voting places across the city, two in each of the 25 wards, open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day, according to the City of Toronto's official election fact sheet.

The key dates, in one place

The timeline for the Toronto election is tighter than it looks. Advance polls open Tuesday, October 6, 2026 and close Sunday, October 11, 2026. That same Sunday is also the last day to add, confirm or update your information on the voters list online, at 7 p.m. After that, you can still register in person when you go to vote. Completed mail-in ballots must reach Toronto Elections by noon on Wednesday, October 14, 2026. Election day is Monday, October 26, 2026.

Missing from this list: the mail-in request deadline. That passed on September 24, 2026, so if you did not request a package by then, your options are voting in person during advance voting or on election day, or appointing someone to vote by proxy for you. Proxy appointment forms must be certified by the City Clerk by October 26, 2026 at 4:30 p.m., according to the City's voting options page.

What you need to vote

Eligibility is simpler than most people expect. To vote in this Toronto election, you must be a Canadian citizen, at least 18 years old, and live in Toronto, or own or rent property there. You do not need to be a registered voter in advance: if you are not on the voters list, you can still vote as long as you meet the criteria, though being on the list makes things faster.

Check the list anyway. The City's MyVote tool lets you confirm, add or update your information, find where and when to vote, and download a digital voter information card. Voters who were on the list by September 20, 2026 are getting voter information cards by mail, but you can show the digital version on your phone. One quirk to know: the voter information card tells you when and where to vote, but it cannot be used as ID. Bring identification that shows your name and your qualifying Toronto address. Photo ID is not necessary.

Students get a special note from Toronto Elections. If you attend a school in Toronto but your home is in another Ontario municipality, you can be eligible to vote in both places. Make sure you vote in the Toronto ward where you live, not the one your campus sits in. If you live in Toronto but study elsewhere, check with the clerk of the municipality where you go to school.

Why this one matters for young voters

Here is the honest data. In the last Toronto election, in 2022, only about three in ten eligible voters showed up: 563,124 ballots cast out of roughly 1.9 million eligible voters. That was the lowest turnout in the modern era of the merged city. Compare that with 2014, when more than half of eligible voters cast a ballot, and 2018, when about four in ten did. The 2023 mayoral by-election landed at about 37 percent. The trajectory is clear, and the gap between the 2022 and 2014 contests is enormous.

Low turnout is exactly why a young voter's ballot carries outsized weight in a Toronto election. When only a minority decides, each additional vote moves the result more. And the stakes are not abstract. As the City itself puts it, its services "have a direct impact on your daily life": transit, housing, roads, recreation centres, libraries, shelters, garbage pickup. If you have ever complained about the subway, a pothole or a waitlist for a rec program, you were arguing about municipal policy. The counterpoint writes itself: this is the order of government closest to your Tuesday afternoon.

What is on the ballot

The scale of this Toronto election field is worth a look. The City Clerk has certified 361 candidates: 53 running for mayor, 190 for councillor and 118 for school board trustee. You vote for a mayor, a councillor and, if eligible, a school board trustee, all in the ward where you live. Close to 10,000 election positions have been filled and more than 1,350 voting places will open on election day, according to the City's official election fact sheet.

Do not let the mayoral race hog all your attention. Councillors are the people who vote on the budget, zoning and the services in your ward. If you are unsure where candidates stand, Build Canada's election guide put the same set of questions to every candidate on the ballot, which makes side-by-side comparisons possible. The city's newsroom has also tracked which issues are defining the mayoral contest, as reported in our look at housing as the deciding issue. For more coverage of the city's biggest stories, browse the Canadian News topic page.

First-timer tips

Go early. Advance voting means shorter lines, weekend hours and your choice of two locations in your ward. Bring your voter information card, digital or printed, plus ID with your name and Toronto address. If you work on election day, you are entitled to three consecutive hours to vote, and your employer decides when those hours fall, so the long advance voting window is the simpler play for shift workers.

If you have younger siblings, they get their own moment. Kids Vote Weekend runs Saturday, October 10, 2026 and Sunday, October 11, 2026, alongside advance voting, and it "encourages young people under 18 to learn about elections and start their journey to becoming lifelong voters," as the City's fact sheet puts it. The under-18 ballot is for Toronto's 2027 Tree of the Year, with five contenders: Basswood, Paper Birch, Red Oak, Sugar Maple and White Pine.

Toronto's 2026 municipal election will be decided by whoever shows up. With advance polls opening Tuesday, October 6, 2026 and the voters list open for updates until October 11, 2026, the smallest thing you can do this week is check MyVote and find your polling place. The vote itself takes minutes. The consequences last four years.