Advance voting in Premier Danielle Smith’s needless and divisive separation referendum begins at 9 o’clock this morning.
If Elections Alberta’s prediction that 80 to 85 per cent of the provincial electorate is likely to turn out to vote this year, there will be lineups at in-person advance polls and on Election Day on Oct. 19. They may be long and slow.
After all, it will take a while for many voters who haven’t been engaged by this ridiculous process until recently to read the nine complicated and intentionally confusing additional questions drafted by the big brains of the United Conservative Party, which in several cases are the same as the big brains behind the separatist Free Alberta Strategy.
The simplest and most effective way to do your best for Alberta and Canada, as well as the people in line behind you, is to vote Option 1 on Ballot 10 (“Alberta should remain a province of Canada”) and NO to the other nine.
In-person advance voting in the referendum will take place today, tomorrow, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Elections Alberta says you can vote at any advance voting place within your electoral division.
On Election Day – Monday, Oct. 19 – you must vote at the voting place identified for your physical address. If you haven’t received anything in the mail, there’s a tool on Elections Alberta’s website that can show you where to vote.
The weather forecast from Environment Canada indicates sunshine through much of the province today and most of the rest of the week, but it’ll be chilly, especially in the morning, so bring a coat and wear warm shoes. If you simply must wear sandals, for heaven’s sake wear socks as well, no matter what the self-appointed fashion police may have told you.
If it gets late, stay in line. Elections Alberta promises you will be allowed to vote.
You will need to bring identification and Alberta government-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards are the simplest. A complete list of ID that elections officials will accept, however, is found here.
If you’re not registered to vote, you can ask to sign a declaration that you are eligible to cast a ballot.
Recent social media activity by secessionist groups and their leaders suggests they are already trying to build a “stop the steal” narrative, à la The Donald, in anticipation of losing the vote. Obviously, the best way to eliminate months of fallout from the repurposed Convoy crowd is to deliver them a thumping defeat at the ballot box.
This is especially so since we can have no confidence that Premier Danielle Smith will deliver on her recent promise that if the “Remain” side wins, there will be no more separation referenda on her watch. Even if she keeps her promise, there is no guarantee that the separatists who now dominate her party and call her tune will not replace her with someone more willing to keep on pushing their schemes. So vote!
good luck to the voters.
Next time Albertans vote in an election they might want to bounce smith and co. right out of office. what a waste of money this vote is. could have been used for so many other things people need.
I am still concerned about this whole process. The time it will take to count the ballots by hand. The data breach still hasn’t been resolved. How will the outcome play out, given how Corb Lund’s Water Not Coal Petition was quashed, despite him doing what he was supposed to do. The UCP and Danielle Smith have got to go. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.
“Elections Alberta keeps a live record of who has voted to ensure no one votes twice. Gurney said if someone’s special ballot has already been received and counted, they will be sent on their way. If the special ballot hasn’t been received, they’ll get to vote. If the ballot package shows up at Elections Alberta, it will be rejected.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/advance-poll-alberta-referendum-9.7376804
I am working as a recording clerk the day of; I will be checking the list for my own and wife’s names as crossed off first thing! We mail in voted weeks ago, and the tracking link says received and counted. Still going to check.
As our host noted, if you are in the line when the poll closes, you still get to vote. The line up is monitored, and should the poll close while people are still waiting, an election officer will be sent out to mark the end of the line. Everyone ahead of officer votes before the voting location is closed.
To expand on required ID, you need to supply a picture and physical address, which is why the driver’s license is perfect (passport just as good). The link will give you the many admissible combinations.
Gerald: Would you be able to let us know if your name was indeed checked off? I, too, voted by mail and received confirmation via the tracking link…but, it would be good to have extra reassurance.
It will be after polls close. No cell phone use in voting station.
Ok. Thanks!
Mine and wife’s mail in ballots were indeed counted. Polls open in 30 min, we already have people waiting at Daly Grove school in Edmonton
Thank you for the follow-up
Gerald, I just looked at my passport, my physical address is not on it. My guess is that I would need a second piece of ID that does not include my photo.
My bad, my brain was thinking “goverment issued identification” but my fingers shortcut to “passport”. Name, picture & address are the trifecta.
Thanks for writing this, David.
10 ballot boxes! What happens if a voter accidentally puts a Q8 ballot in the Q9 box? Will that count as spoiled?
No. They are colour coded, and oops will be obvious. Wrong box is not a spoiler, just requires transfer, meaning slightly more time to count. All boxes from a voting station stay together through entire counting process. There will be election officers ensuring right ballot into right box in any case.
Already voted! Never used a mail in ballot before now, but it was surprisingly easy. And yes, I checked to make sure my envelope had been received and processed by Elections Alberta. The link was in the original email sent confirming I could vote by mail. One thing might ease the line ups over the next week. Several separatist influencers are urging people to only vote on Option #10 and ignore the rest. Let’s hope their ‘sheep’ take their advice and skip the Nonsense Nine. It would shorten the lines and give the ‘no to the nine’ campaign a better chance. I’d really like to hear Danielle Smith explain away the defeat of her nine essay questions – especially since she’s already implemented some of them.
Smith: lets horse out of barn, holds a referendum on letting horse out of barn, then ignores whatever the voters say because horse, barn, out. All hat, no horse.
The referendum is a big ol’ psy-op and a waste of resources, but is it really divisive? Grift-o-Kons were as terrible before this scam was cooked up as they are now. They elected Marlainia. What made them any less repellent in the past?
Sometimes, voters must be herded to be heard. TY
The wife and I voted this morning at an advance poll. There was quite a line up but surprisingly things moved along quite well, which was much different than the recent civic election disaster. It took roughly 1/2 a hour to get through and done, even though they didn’t quite have the crowd herding thing figured out at first. True to form we want to turf Dingy Smith and voted No to the first 9 and stay in Canada on number 10!
I looked on their website and did not see any link to find out if there was a concern regarding my mail in ballot. So I phoned them and got answer right away. I still wonder, how safe my information is.
Voted in Lethbridge, doors remained closed, we knocked on the door around 9.15 am and a some one opened the door and appeared to be upset with us for knocking on the door and told us that they had a problem with the computer and they had called someone to fix it. We were told there were other places to vote if we did not want to wait . 10 minutes later some one showed up and “fixed” the computer, took about 2 minutes. I think he turned on the computer!!!!
Barney: Check if it was plugged in, probably. DJC
Elections AB has stated that in places where there was a delay in opening advance polls, they stayed open later at the end of the day to compensate.
This is all excellent and clear advice. Thank you David.
Alfredo: Especially the part about socks and sandals, if I may say so myself. DJC