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EDMONTON — Alberta is entering day two of advance voting for the Oct. 19 provincial referendum, with electors able to cast ballots at advance locations across the province through Saturday.
Advance voting runs from Oct. 13 to 17. During that period, electors can vote at any advance voting location within their electoral division.
To find out where to vote in the advance polls, visit Elections Alberta’s Where to Vote tool.
Electors who are not already registered can register when they arrive to vote, provided they meet eligibility and identification requirements.
Elections Alberta says voters should bring accepted identification and make sure they are attending a location within their electoral division. Anyone in line when voting closes for the day will still be allowed to cast a ballot.
Meanwhile, Elections Alberta is continuing to process a historically large number of special ballots.
As of Sept. 29, the agency had received and processed just over 658,000 special ballot applications. More than 652,000 were approved and sent to electors, while more than 5,700 were rejected because of issues including ineligibility, duplicate requests and invalid address or other information.
At that point, more than 131,000 completed special ballot packages had been returned, validated and marked as voted.
That left more than half a million approved special ballots not yet returned and validated as of the Sept. 29 update.
Completed special ballots must be received by Elections Alberta by 5 p.m. Oct. 16.
Electors whose special ballot has not been received and approved by the deadline can still vote in person during advance voting.
Elections Alberta says the voting register is updated in real time when a special ballot is received and approved. Once an elector is marked as having voted, they cannot vote again, a safeguard intended to prevent anyone from casting more than one ballot.
Voters who decide not to use their special ballot package should not bring it to an in-person voting location. Elections Alberta says unused packages cannot be accepted there and should instead be disposed of securely at home.
The high demand for special ballots has been attributed to changes allowing electors to apply without providing a specific reason, the end of the former “vote anywhere” option and the number of referendum questions on the ballot.
Advance voting ends Saturday, Oct. 17. The final day to vote is Election Day on Monday, Oct. 19.
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