Alberta had the strongest election turnout in a generation last night, with almost 57% of eligible voters casting ballots.
That’s far higher than the record low set by voters in the 2008 election, when only 40.6% of voters showed up at the polls.
Three Edmonton ridings were in the Alberta top 10 for turnout. Edmonton-Rivervew topped the province at 69.2%. Sherwood Park and Edmonton-Gold Bar also had turnout over 65%.
The numbers are based on unofficial results from Election Alberta.
Riding by riding numbers can be found on our interactive map below.
All three ridings saw a well-known incumbents not seeking re-election, leaving an open seat, which seems to have drawn out voters in record numbers.
The Edmonton-Riverview riding would have likely been the safest seat for the Liberals if incumbent Kevin Taft was once again seeking a seat there. In 2008, Taft won the riding easily for the Liberals, beating the Progressive Conservative candidate by 16%. Monday night was a different story for Edmonton-Riverview. PC candidate Steve Young beat out his Liberal opponent Arif Khan, winning roughly 40% of the vote. Young is an Edmonton police officer, and violence reduction consultant for the City.
The Sherwood Park riding also saw a popular incumbent not seek re-election this time around. With Tory MLA Iris Evans out of the running, it became a race between the PCs and the Wildrose candidates. Former Sherwood Park mayor Cathy
Olesen representing the PCs was able to beat out the WRP candidate Garnett Genuis, by winning nearly 46% of the vote.
Edmonton-Goldbar also saw high voter turnout.
That riding saw a race between PC candidate David Dorward, who came in second in Edmonton’s 2010 mayoral race, and NDP candidate Marlin Schmidt. This region is supportive of federal NDP candidates, and it seems to have translated to the provincial race, giving Schmidt 29% of the vote, but it wasn’t enough to beat Dorward, who earned 33%.
Other ridings with high voter turnout in this election include Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills (which elected WRP’s Bruce Rowe), Livingstone-Macleod (which elected WRP’s Pat Stier), Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock (which elected PC Maureen Kubinec), Calgary-Mountain View (which elected Liberal David Swann), Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills (which elected WRP’s Shayne Saskiw), Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater (which elected PC Jeff Johnson) and Edmonton-Rutherford (which elected PC Fred Horne).
The north of the province had lower turnout.
The two ridings centred on Fort McMurray were the province’s lowest and second-lowest, respectively.
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