Alberta’s advance polls draw record numbers

Record numbers of Albertans are turning out to cast ballots at advance polls for Tuesday’s provincial election.

About 127,000 came out Thursday to bring a three-day total to 403,000, with two days of advance polls left. The numbers have already shattered the previous record for early voting set in 2015, when 235,000 people cast ballots ahead of the election.

NDP Leader and incumbent premier Rachel Notley said she is encouraged by the turnout.

“We’ve been working very hard to get the many, many, many hundreds of thousands of supporters that we’ve already identified ... to the polls,” she said at a campaign event in Calgary on Friday.

Notley said she expects there will be more than 1.5 million people who cast ballots in Tuesday’s election.

“We are very pleased and proud that it was our changes to the legislation that allowed for the increased convenience of voting that we are seeing drive the increase in advanced polling,” she said.

About 44,000 of those who ventured out Thursday took advantage of a change in the election rules that allows them to vote outside of their home constituencies during advance polls. Figures show 127,000 people have taken advantage of that option so far.

On election day, people will still have to vote within their constituencies.

The vote-anywhere change was introduced in December 2017.

Elections Alberta has said the new rule could have an effect on how advance poll votes are handled, because ballots must be counted in Edmonton.

The office estimates that, in one instance, courier time could be up to two days from Fort McMurray and counting would not begin until the morning after the election.

Pamela Renwick, an office spokeswoman, told CTV News that an example of the potential delay would be having two candidates in an electoral division within 100 votes of each other, with 1,000 ballots still to be counted.

The Alberta election in May 2015 drew 57 per cent of all eligible voters — the highest turnout since the 1979 election, when 58 per cent of the electorate participated.