The Alberta election has seen a record voter turnout at the advanced polls, with more than 400,000 people province-wide casting a ballot in advance of the April 16 vote in just the first three days alone.
According to Lorrill Waschuk, Elections Alberta’s returning officer for the Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock electoral district, only 235,000 people cast an early ballot during the 2015 election in all of the advance polling days put together.
Waschuk said the trends began right after the first day of polling.
“One-hundred-forty-thousand cast a ballot across the province in the first day of advanced voting alone,” she said. “That’s opposed to just 58,000 during the first day of advanced polls back in 2015.”
She said 5,700 people have voted in the Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock electoral district advance polls as of April 11.
“It’s been a steady stream since the advance polls opened,” Waschuk said. “We are absolutely over the moon at how well the process is working in this election, as this is the first time voter IDs are done electronically in each constituency.”
As well, Waschuk said that for the first time ever, Elections Alberta has allowed people to vote in advance at any poll in the province, regardless of which constituency they live in.
“We had 5,100 voters from this constituency vote elsewhere within the province,” Waschuk said.
In an email, she said official results are announced by Elections Alberta on April 26.
Athabasca voters
One voter, Rose Pyke, cast her ballot at the advance poll located at the returning office April 12.
“I will not be in town April 16, and I wanted to make sure my vote was counted,” Pyke said. “I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do so, so I took advantage of it."
Another voter, college student Mark Thompson, cast his ballot for the first time while accompanied by his parents.
“I just performed my civic duty,” he said. “I do not actually follow politics, as I have lots to do at school.”
His father, Rob Thompson, said it saves the family a trip to town on election day.
“We live just outside of Athabasca,” he said.
Terry Cardinal also took advantage of the advanced poll April 12.
“I will be heading back up to work in Fort McMurray as a boilermaker on April 14,” he said just after casting his vote. “As a result, I will not be in Athabasca April 16. The poll allowed me to exercise my civic duty.”
“Voting in advance is much more convenient for me,” Lori Silkie said after casting her vote. “It also allows me to ensure my vote gets counted on election day.”
Elections workers
Waschuk said her team is all set and ready to go.
“As of April 11, we have our full complement of 235 election workers,” she said. “They will be manning 84 polls, five advance polls and five mobile polls throughout the campaign.”
She added the workers each completed a day of training April 13.
