More than 3,000 mail-in ballots for Alberta’s October 19 referendum have come back with errors that make them invalid, Elections Alberta said, with less than two weeks to go before the vote. Some packages arrived without the signed declaration form, and others had errors or problems with the voter’s identification, the Canadian Press reported October 6.
Those voters can still fix it. Elections Alberta said they have time to send the missing or corrected information by email. Under the agency’s published procedure, voters who left out the declaration or a copy of accepted ID are contacted and given the chance to supply it before the receiving deadline. If they do not, the ballot is rejected, the voter is notified, and the voter may still cast a ballot in person at advance voting or on Election Day.
The volume is large. Elections Alberta said it has verified about a third of the more than 652,000 ballot packages it sent to eligible voters. Each returned package must contain a signed declaration, a copy of accepted identification, and a sealed inner envelope holding the ballots, which election officers check against the voter list before the ballots are counted.
Albertans will answer ten questions on October 19. Question 10 asks voters to choose between two options: that Alberta remain in Canada, or that the provincial government “commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada.” Under the order that set the question, the result is not binding.
The last public poll the Partisan reported, by Janet Brown Opinion Research for CBC in September, found 72 percent choosing to remain and 23 percent choosing to begin that process.
With the vote days away, the people running it are asking Albertans to check their envelopes. On October 19, Albertans decide for themselves whether their government begins the process toward a binding vote on leaving Canada.
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