Special ballots are set to start being mailed out on Sept. 1 to Albertans who’ve requested them for the Alberta referendum taking place in October.
As of Aug. 31, Elections Alberta says around 225,000 people have applied for the ballot, which allows people to vote by mail.
In the 2023 provincial general election, that number was 59,589 and of those, 19,513 were returned by mail.
“I don’t think it’s a surprising number at all, because its been pretty clear to anyone who’s been paying attention that there’s a high risk of long lineups on referendum day,” said Lisa Young, a political scientist at the University of Calgary.
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“It’s going to be a much more complicated undertaking and we know that Elections Alberta has had trouble getting enough staff to staff all of these polling stations.”
Some people are even encouraging their fellow voters to skip any lines and use the special ballot.
Jetty Nieuwenhuis lives southeast of Red Deer. She says she, her husband and their two sons all applied for the mail-in option and she’s been telling other people to do the same.
“I suspect there’ll be huge lineups and I just want to have that extra option,” said Nieuwenhuis.
“I think it’s very important that every Albertan (goes) to vote, including me.”
Albertans can vote in the referendum by special ballot, in advance voting from Oct. 13-17, or on referendum day Oct. 19.
Elections Alberta said to review the questions on its website, check authorized ID options beforehand and have it ready when they arrive to vote.
We have to rid ourselves of this liberal tire fire. I wouldn’t trust a mail-in ballot to not get tossed before it was counted. If FN’s don’t want to prosper, that’s on them. I’m sure there are many that contract work with O&G and probably don’t agree with their chiefs. They need to stand up and be counted.
Total waste of time regardless of the outcome. The Province of Alberta has three primary and legal stakeholders. They are: Indigenous Treaties 6,7, and 8. Private land owners, and the Crown.
@Brenda Unlike Kalistani and liberal racists, Alberta is not a racist ethno-state
Khalistanis are so excited about this. Let’s break Canada up!
Hopefully none of those requests were generated from leaked voter list, but I am guessing there would be con style cheating going on.
Huge lineups. Everyone has been told that only a fringe minority of people support Alberta independence so why bother to vote.
Alberta must leave
I will be voting to leave Canada. Alberta would be better as an Independent Republic or with the USA.
I tried to access the government website to request a mail-in ballot. The website would not process my address even though I used the address on my drivers license. Finally pulled up the drop down menu for my building but 7 residences were missing including mine.