Elections Ontario is encouraging residents to request mail-in ballots or take advantage of extra days of advanced voting this year with the intention of thinning polling station crowds on the province’s first — and hopefully only — provincial election day amid COVID-19.

Political parties are currently making pandemic campaign plans and contingency arrangements as the official campaign start nears, but the body that administers Ontario’s elections has had a possible pandemic election in its sights for a long time.

Chief electoral officer Greg Essensa wrote to the chief medical officer of health in the summer of 2020 asking for a task force, and the two offices have