Southern Alberta communities left without polling stations

Sandwiched in the middle of the Prairies between Calgary and Lethbridge, two small Alberta villages are facing a frustrating reality.

Many of Champion and Carmangay’s residents recently received their voter cards, but some of the information was not what they expected.

“I’m just extremely disappointed in the fact that our polling station has been removed with no notice,” said Christine Nyberg, a resident of Champion.

There are roughly 400 people who call Champion home and another 300 in Carmangay. Many of them say the Champion Pioneer Club has been the site for every municipal, provincial and federal election for decades.

“It’s very iron fist as to the way this is going to go,” said Richard Ellis, mayor of the Village of Champion. “It’s not up for debate. We were never contacted. We were never asked our opinion.”

The change was so surprising, many residents said they assumed there was a mistake on the voter card, until they realized everyone had the same information.

“A friend of ours called and said, ‘Look at your voter cards.’ So that’s when we found out, OK, we’re going to Lomond,” said Leeann Sparkes, another resident of the village.

Elections Canada released a statement to Global News indicating this situation is a byproduct of the riding boundary changes two years ago.

“With the redistribution exercise that concluded in 2023, the boundaries of the Bow River electoral district changed,” the agency said. “Because of that, voters in the Champion/Carmangay area lost one of their main options for a polling location.”

Dianne Vermeeren doesn’t live in Champion or Carmangay. But she said the problem spreads even beyond those two villages.

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“The town of Vulcan has been moved into Foothills (electoral district) and residents on either side of town are being forced to drive somewhere up to 50 km to be able to vote,” she said.

Elections Canada said there is a valid reason for this new travel requirement, however.

“There are no locations within these communities that meet Elections Canada’s requirements (mainly accessibility) for polling locations, given the age of most of the buildings.”

But Ellis said this is not true.

“We’ve always had voting stations here for federal, provincial (and) municipal (elections),” he said. “(The Champion Pioneer Club) is fully accessible. We have three others in Champion that are fully accessible. We also have four trained staff from the last election that live here and there’s three in Carmangay as well.”

Elections Canada has since assigned a location in Lomond, which is about 30 minutes away by vehicle, as the designated voting location for advance polling days and for election day.

“This location meets all of our suitability requirements, primarily for accessibility,” Elections Canada said.

Still, residents are concerned for those who are unable to make the hour-long round trip.

“A lot of the seniors I know who live in the village here, they get around on a scooter or by handibus. They can’t afford that (drive),” Sparkes said.

In fact, one resident, Candy Wright, said she knows voters who won’t be casting a ballot for that very reason.

“I don’t understand why they’re not having a poll here,” she said. “I know there’s several people who are not going to vote now because they have to go too far away.

“They have little scooters that they can drive right to (a potential polling location in Champion).”

There are other options, however. Elections Canada said voters don’t have to make the trip if they don’t want too and they can still vote.

“If residents wish, they can vote at the Elections Canada Office in Lethbridge anytime until April 22 at 6 p.m., or they can request a special ballot online at elections.ca or by calling 1-800-463-6868 and return the special ballot by mail.”

But according at every resident interviewed by Global News, this solution is unacceptable.

“Nobody trusts mail-in ballots anymore,” Sparkes said.

For Ellis, he wants to watch the votes being counted and sending a ballot away doesn’t enable that.

“Those are special ballots, so we don’t actually get to see them scrutineered,” he said. “We don’t get to see them opened and counted, which is a concern to quite a few of us.”

The changes mean the trust in Elections Canada has been broken for many residents in these communities.

“If I can’t see my vote go in my ballot box, I can’t guarantee that my vote is going to be counted,” Nyberg said.

And she said that trust may never come back.

“I just hope that we can get back to how we had it. I know it’s going to take a lot of work for us as a community to send letters in and put our complaints forward, but make no mistake about it, this is a very strong little community and we will stand up for our rights here because we feel our rights have been totally taken away.”

Elections Canada said the concerns are being heard.

“We always strive to improve our services and Elections Canada will take this feedback from local residents under consideration ahead of the next election.”