Elections Alberta says it delivered additional ballots to several Indigenous communities after unexpectedly high turnout caused voting delays during Monday’s referendum.
Siksika First Nation was one of several communities affected Monday, Chief Samuel Crowfoot said. Voting was extended by more than 90 minutes due to high turnout.
He’s requesting a formal explanation of how Elections Alberta allocated polling staff, ballots and other resources.
“There are barriers when it comes to carrying out these civic functions in rural communities,” Crowfoot said.
Elections Alberta spokesperson Kevin Duncan told Global News Tuesday the agency relied on historical data for ballot distribution.
Some communities eventually required multiple ballot deliveries because turnout exceeded expectations, he added.
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“We’re seeing this as a bit of a good news story. We’re seeing high voter turnout in these areas,” Duncan said.
In total, 106 polling stations across Alberta had to remain open later Monday after delays prevented them from opening on time, Duncan said. Most of the delays lasted 10 to 15 minutes, but some were longer. The last voting station closed at 10:41 p.m. MT.
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“We’re very impressed with how quickly the team was able to react.”
Duncan said more than 47,000 workers were on hand to help at the 1,400 polling stations across Alberta on Monday.
“As you can imagine, popping up 1,400 locations for a one-day event is no small task,” he said.
Unofficial results showed 10,607,881 responses had been recorded across the referendum’s 10 questions as of 8:30 a.m. MT Tuesday. Elections Alberta said 1,356,873 advance and special ballots were cast from Oct. 13 to Oct. 17.
Natives always have something to cry about shut up already
No point in printing millions of extra ballots if they are not distributed!
Do you pay Taxes?? Shut up!!
We need money to study this.
? It was extended due to a late start. Natives seem to always get it wrong. It is not all about them…. If there was a lineup at closing time, they stayed open for those in line. Same as any other vote. Nothing about being native or rural.
The long wait times was due to voter turnout. Instead of voting for moron a or moron b, we had a couple of questions to provide input on.