What to expect when you’re voting in the Alberta referendum and watching results

What to expect when you’re voting in the Alberta referendum and watching results

Final results on national unity question not expected until wee hours of Oct. 20

The final vote count for Alberta's referendum on the province’s future in Canada will likely become available in the wee hours on the day after ballots are cast, officials say.

In a briefing with reporters in Edmonton on Thursday, Elections Alberta officials said although they’ll be counting ballots for a question about separatism first, thousands of counters likely won’t have a final tally until between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. local time the next day.

Officials said the agency has also polled Albertans and discovered that about four in five eligible voters say they intend to vote in the Oct. 19 referendum, which will see voters be asked to answer 10 questions.

“Not only has Alberta never done anything like this, nowhere in Canada has done anything like this before,” said Dallas Stoesz, deputy chief electoral officer for Elections Alberta.

The agency has previously said it plans to print about 45 million colour-coded and numbered ballots for the referendum, and is looking to hire 60,000 election workers to meet its legal obligation to count the ballots by hand within a 48-hour time frame.

‘Colossal undertaking’: Elections Alberta recruiting 60K people to work fall referendum

The first five questions the provincial government is putting to Albertans cover immigration issues and how provincial funding is used to provide public services to newcomers. There are also questions about matters of federal and provincial jurisdiction, and the province’s relationship with Ottawa.

Alberta to hold fall referendum on whether to have binding referendum on separating from Canada

In May, amid competing citizen petitions pushing for national unity or a separatism vote, Premier Danielle Smith added a tenth question to the vote, asking:

“Should Alberta remain a province of Canada or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”

On Thursday, Elections Alberta staff laid out the processes and timelines related to referendum day so the public knows what to expect.

That depends on the question, Elections Alberta officials said.

The provincial government has ordered the agency to count ballots for Question 10 first. Counting teams will then move on to ballots for questions 1, 2, 3 and so on, in numerical order, Stoesz said.

Counting teams will start tallying special ballots and advanced poll votes at 5 p.m. on referendum day. The teams will count those ballots in aggregate, not poll by poll, and Stoesz said she hopes those tallies will be available earlier.

Once referendum day polls close at 8 p.m. local time, counting teams will begin the count on those ballots. Workers will tally these counts poll by poll, and will publish the results as they come in. Polling stations with smaller numbers of voters may report results earlier.

However, many polling stations are in schools, Stoesz said, where Elections Alberta can’t take over the space for 60 consecutive hours. In those cases, workers will load ballot boxes from 350 voting stations into vehicles and take them to centralized counting facilities in larger cities.

“We do not have the option to go home and sleep and come back the next day and start,” Stoesz said. “We have 48 hours from the time voting ends to complete the count, which is why we are working in shifts. We will have people working around the clock.

Elections Alberta officials said they estimate the agency should have the full count of Question 10 votes between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. local time on Oct. 20.

The agency estimates it will have unofficial results of questions 1 through 9 by the morning of Oct. 21.

Regulations require Elections Alberta to release all unofficial results by 8 p.m. local time on Oct. 21.

Stoesz said there are no penalties outlined in the law for failing to meet that deadline, but she expects the agency will make it.

How long will it take me to vote on referendum day?

Elections Alberta performed simulations of voting and counting, and decided that putting each referendum question on a separate piece of paper was the most efficient and accurate way of managing the 10-question event.

Officials estimate that a voter who has read about the issues and is familiar with the questions could take about two minutes to mark ballots in the voting station, whereas someone less familiar with the questions might take four minutes. A voter who needs assistance with voting due to a disability or translation help could take about five minutes.

A voter will take their completed ballots and deposit them into colour-coded and numbered boxes that correspond to each question.

Although Elections Alberta didn’t give estimates for how long a voter might have to wait in line to cast a ballot, officials said there are steps all voters can take to speed up the process for everyone.

Jennifer Maskoske, director of elections operations at Elections Alberta, said voters should ensure they have their identification ready to show an information officer before they reach the front of the line. This preparation might mean printing or saving a utility bill in advance, so electors aren’t punching passwords into their phones.

A description and list of acceptable voter ID is available on Elections Alberta’s website.

“When you do get to that information officer, have your ‘where to vote’ card there with you [so] that you can move that pace along a little bit quicker,” Maskoske said.

She said she is also examining whether the agency can print the referendum questions on posters that voters could read and contemplate while they’re waiting in line.

What are the alternatives to voting on referendum day?

More than 290,000 electors have already requested special ballots from Elections Alberta. Voters who want special ballots must apply for this mail-in option by Sept. 25 and mail their ballots in to arrive before 5 p.m. local time on Oct. 16.

Voters can track the status of their special ballot online. If it does not arrive on time, they are still eligible to vote in person at the polls.

So far, voters have requested more than four times the number of special ballots disseminated during the 2023 provincial general election.

Voters can also visit advanced polls in their electoral district between Oct. 13 and Oct. 17.

Elections Alberta will publish advance poll and referendum day poll locations later this month, on “where to vote” cards mailed to electors, and online.

Do I have to vote on all 10 questions?

No. Stoesz said a voter can choose to decline as many of the 10 ballots as they wish. Any ballots a voter declines will be kept in envelopes, and also tallied. This option means voter turnout for each referendum question could be different.

What turnout does Elections Alberta expect?

Stoesz said Elections Alberta’s polling suggests the percentage of Albertans who intend to vote in the referendum is between 80 and 85 per cent.

The agency arrived at this turnout estimate based on an online survey of 1,001 Albertans in mid-August.

Turnout in the 2023 provincial general election was 60.5 per cent.

Is Elections Alberta ready for a vote of this magnitude?

Workers in the referendum may be handling up to 25 times more ballots than were cast in the last provincial general election.

Still, Elections Alberta representatives said staff are prepared for the unprecedented vote. The organization is about two weeks ahead of where it would normally be in preparation for a provincial general election, officials said.

Elections experts arriving from other Canadian jurisdictions to help will be instrumental, they added.

“It's a real honour to be a part of this and to be able to help deliver this to Albertans,” Stoesz said. “We appreciate the trust in us, and we are doing everything to make sure that this goes as well as it possibly can.”

Janet French covers the Alberta Legislature for CBC Edmonton. She previously spent 15 years working at newspapers, including the Edmonton Journal and Saskatoon StarPhoenix. You can reach her at janet.french@cbc.ca.