Longer voting hours, more advance polling days and ballots that boast a candidate's party affiliation are among the election-day tweaks that Ontario officials hope will boost interest in next month's provincial election.

For the first time, the name of each candidate's party will appear on the ballot. Advance polls will be open twice as long as in previous years, starting Sept. 22. And on Oct. 10, polls in most parts of the province will stay open until 9 p.m., an hour later than usual.

"We believe that helps (make it easier to vote), because most people vote after their work day and people will be less rushed leaving work at 5 p.m. trying to get home and get out to the polls,'' said Elections Ontario chief electoral officer John Hollins.

The addition of about 5,000 more polling divisions, for a total of about 28,000 across the province, means voters should face shorter lineups and some won't have to travel as far to vote, he added.

"More polling divisions puts polls closer to people. We used to have an average of 362(registered voters) in each polling division and we now have about 303 or 304.''

The number of ridings in the province is also increasing to 107 from 103 as boundaries in southern Ontario are redrawn to match their federal counterparts. Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Marie Bountrogianni said she hasn't heard any complaints.

"I think, quite frankly, the general public may not even know about the riding changes until they get the literature at the door from Elections Ontario,'' Bountrogianni said.

"Whenever there's change there's a little bit of frustration, but I haven't heard any(complaints).''

For the first time in the province's history, the date of the election has been known long before the writ is dropped. That's because legislation passed in 2005 established the first Thursday of October every four years as the province's fixed election date.

Voters this year will also get an extra ballot, to be cast in Ontario's first referendum in more than 80 years.

Elections Ontario is planning an extensive educational campaign to let voters know they'll be asked to answer a referendum question about whether the province should adopt a new, more representative system to elect politicians.

Hollins said he thinks the referendum will encourage more people to vote and boost the level of voter turnout, which was 56.8 per cent in 2003.

"We believe this time that with the referendum there should be more interest and we're certainly hoping it will go up.''