We're not at all worried about the numbers of those voting abroad. We have excess capacity to triage large mail numbers. We are acquiring new machines to triage the mail. We will be prepared. I'm not worried about that.
In terms of the voting in Canada, what we are seeing is a trend in the last election, a trend that we've seen provincially and internationally: there is a tremendous increase in voting at advance polls. In New Zealand, they're at 50%. In Australia, they're at close to 50%, and I would suspect that they're going to get to 50% in this election. Federally, we could be well into 30% or 35% in the next election.
There are a few things that we've done. We've streamlined the paper process at the advance polls. We've increased by 20% the number of advance polls. That will also serve to reduce the travel distance in rural areas. It's not just the volume. It will get the polls closer to the people. There's an increase in the voting hours. They used to be only from noon until 8 p.m., and now it's from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. There's a range of tools that we've done.
The other thing that we've seen in Ontario and Quebec provincial elections is a dramatic increase in voting at the returning office. It was 400% in Quebec and 200% in Ontario, so we have streamlined the special ballot process that is used for voting at the RO's office to make it more efficient. We're increasing the capacity as well.