Members of the United Conservative Party (UCP) will begin their quest to elect a leader when polls open Thursday at 9 a.m.
“It’s digital voting so you can do it online or by phone,” UCP executive director Janice Harrington said.
“You had to have been a member [of the party] by Sept. 29 and you had to have registered to vote by showing the approved ID… by Oct. 13.”
FULL COVERAGE: United Conservative Party
Those registered to vote have received PINs which will allow members to enter the voting system where they’ll proceed to mark a preferential ballot.
“They’ll be confronted with a ballot that has the three candidates names on it and they’ll be asked to rank those three names by their first, second and third choices,” Harrington explained.
After polls close at 5 p.m. on Saturday, all of the first choices from the voting will be tallied.
“If on the first count, if someone gets 50 per cent plus one, that person is the leader.
If nobody gets 50 per cent plus one, the third-place candidate drops off the ballot and that person’s number two preferences are counted and applied to the other two candidates.”
READ MORE: Whoever wins Alberta UCP leadership contest likely on ‘path to premier’s office’: poll
Harrington said one of the attractive features of using electronic voting for the leadership contest is that members can vote at any time of day from anywhere so long as the polls are open.
“It resolves that proverbial snowstorm issue,” Harrington said. “People in the rural areas… it doesn’t matter where you are, if you have access to the internet or a telephone, you can vote. You don’t have to leave the luxury of your own home.”
Roughly 62,000 of the UCP’s 106,000 party members have registered to vote.
Brian Jean, Jason Kenney and Doug Schweitzer are vying to become the party’s first leader.
Watch below: Jean, Kenney and Schweitzer have all appeared on Global News Morning this week.
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