The Chief Electoral Officer is a non-partisan Officer of the Legislative Assembly, responsible for the administration of the
Election Act and the
Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act. The Chief Electoral Officer ensures that elections are conducted fairly and that political entities and voters abide by the rules set out in legislation.
Under the authority of the Election Act, the Chief Electoral Officer and the staff at Elections Alberta provide guidance and supervision for the conduct of all provincial enumerations, general elections, by-elections and plebiscites.
Under the jurisdiction of the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act, the Chief Electoral Officer and the staff at Elections Alberta are responsible for the collection, examination and public disclosure of registration and financial documents of provincial political parties, constituency associations and candidates.
In order to be eligible to vote in an Alberta provincial election, a person must reside in the polling subdivision in which they seek to vote, and must:
- be a Canadian citizen,
- be at least eighteen years of age,
- be ordinarily resident in Alberta for six months prior to Polling Day,
- not be excluded under section 45 of the Election Act, which states:
"The following persons are not eligible to vote at an election:
- returning officers, except to break a tie at the official count or judicial recount;
- persons disqualified from voting under this Act;
- persons who have been convicted of offences and on Polling Day are serving their sentences in a correctional institution under the Corrections Act, in a penitentiary under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (Canada), in a place of custody under the Youth Justice Act or the Youth Criminal Justice Act (Canada) or in any other similar institution outside Alberta, excluding persons sentenced to terms of imprisonment of 10 days or less or for the non-payment of fines."
Elections Alberta has a strong commitment to protecting electors' privacy. Voter information from the Register of Electors may only be used for electoral purposes and distribution of voter lists is restricted to the agencies involved in the conduct of elections. Any misuse of this information may result in fines up to $100,000, or imprisonment for up to one year, or both. This law shall be vigorously enforced. Electronic safeguards will be used to trace any person who misuses such information.
You can register to vote using our secure on-line registration system called
Voterlink.
You can also contact Elections Alberta in person or by phone (780) 427-7191, e-mail
info@elections.ab.ca or facsimile (780) 422-2900. Your information will be added to the Register of Electors to ensure that it will appear on subsequent Lists of Electors.
If you wish to register a political party, you must first contact the Chief Electoral Officer, in writing, and request that the party name you have selected is held while you meet the requirements identified in the
Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act. The Chief Electoral Officer will contact you, in writing, to confirm approval of the name as long as it is appropriate and not easily confused with an existing party or another party name that is being held pending registration. Along with the approval you will receive an information package and specific instructions to assist you in the registration process.
Part of the registration process consists of the collection of names of electors on a petition supporting your intent to register the new party. You must collect signatures from 7,050 electors, which represents 0.3% of the number of electors eligible to vote at the last general election, conducted on March 3, 2008. This requirement is based on the post-Polling Day Lists of Electors, released July 2008 in accordance with Section 19 of the Election Act, which contained 2,350,045 eligible electors.
You may also register a political party by endorsing candidates in at least half of the electoral divisions in the province at an upcoming general election. Since there are 83 electoral divisions in Alberta for purposes of a provincial general election, you would be required to have candidates run, on behalf of the proposed party, in at least 42 electoral divisions.
Further information regarding the rights and responsibilities of registered political parties is contained in the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act , which is available from the Queen's Printer Bookstore. The Act will be provided to you by the Chief Electoral Officer if you submit a written request to register a political party.
Section 3(1) of the
Legislative Assembly Act directs that "No Legislative Assembly shall continue for longer than 5 years from the date fixed for the return of the writs at a general election of its Members."
The Provincial General Election was held on March 3, 2008. Official results were announced and writs were returned on March 13, 2008. Therefore, the twenty-seventh Legislative Assembly shall not continue past March 13, 2013. A Provincial General Election would have to be called on or before Thursday, March 14, 2013. Polling Day would be twenty-eight days after the date the election is called.
According to section 43 of the
Election Act, an elector must vote in the polling subdivision of the electoral division in which the person is ordinarily resident on Polling Day.
An elector is considered to have only one place of ordinary residence, and it is defined as "the place where the person lives and sleeps and to which, when the person is absent from it, the person intends to return". Therefore, if you temporarily live or work away from your place of ordinary residence, you must still vote in the electoral division in which you ordinarily reside.
For example, this would apply to:
- A student from Red Deer attending university in Victoria and living in residence there, who ordinarily lives "at home" (spends holidays with the family and intends to return to Red Deer after the program of study is completed). The student would be eligible to vote in Red Deer.
- A construction worker from Edmonton working in Fort McMurray and living in temporary accommodations (a motel or apartment) who ordinarily resides with his family in Edmonton. The worker would be eligible to vote in Edmonton.
- A retired person from Pincher Creek traveling in another country who has been away for several months but intends to return after the extended holiday. The vacationer would be eligible to vote in Pincher Creek.
In all cases, the electors would have to meet the regular eligibility criteria.
If you are in a similar situation, there are two options available to you if you expect to be away from your electoral division on Polling Day.
The first option is to vote at the Advance Poll in your own electoral division. Advance Polls are held from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday prior to Polling Day. Addresses of Advance Poll locations are published in local newspapers and can also be obtained from Returning Officers or Elections Alberta's website at www.elections.ab.ca.
The second option is to vote by Special Ballot. You must request a Special Ballot from the Returning Officer in your electoral division. The request - which must come from the elector - can be made as soon as the Writ of Election is issued. Special Ballot requests are accepted in person, by mail, by facsimile, by e-mail or by telephone. It is important to note that, while requests for Special Ballots may be sent via facsimile or e-mail, the Special Ballots themselves may not. A Special Ballot sent via facsimile or e-mail would be easily identifiable, and the basic principle of the secret ballot would be lost. For this same reason, you may not obtain a Special Ballot from anyone other than the Returning Officer in your own electoral division.
Your Special Ballot must be received, completed and returned to the Returning Officer by the close of polls at 8:00 p.m. on Polling Day to be counted. Any Special Ballots received after the close of polls are counted as rejected ballots.
There are a couple of options available to assist you in voting if you are unable to vote on Polling Day.
The first option is to vote at the Advance Poll in your own electoral division. Advance Polls are held from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday prior to Polling Day. Addresses of Advance Poll locations are published in local newspapers and can also be obtained from Returning Officers or Elections Alberta's website at www.elections.ab.ca.
The second option is to vote by Special Ballot, following the procedure outlined above.
Please be certain to consider these options well in advance of Polling Day - electors who have not made arrangements in time have been very disappointed when, for example, sufficient time is not left to receive and return a Special Ballot. The Returning Officer will do his or her best to accommodate your particular situation, but the request must be made by the elector in time to meet the administrative requirements of the electoral process.
There are provisions in the
Election Act to ensure that there is sufficient time for eligible electors to vote on Polling Day.
These provisions are contained in section 132, which states:
"(1) An employee who is an elector qualified to vote shall, while the polls are open on Polling Day at an election or plebiscite, be allowed 3 consecutive hours for the purpose of casting the employee's vote.
(2) If the employee's hours of employment do not allow for the 3 consecutive hours' absence, the employee's employer shall allow the employee additional time for voting to provide the 3 consecutive hours, but the additional time for voting shall be granted at the convenience of the employer.
(3) No employer may make any deduction from the pay of an employee or impose on or exact from the employee any penalty by reason of the employee's absence from employment during the 3 consecutive hours referred to in subsection (1) or additional time granted under subsection (2).
(4) This section does not apply to employees actually engaged in the operation or dispatching of railway trains or scheduled commercial aircraft and to whom the 3 consecutive hours mentioned in subsection (1) cannot be allowed without interfering with the operation or dispatching of the trains or aircraft."
Your regular work schedule may already allow for three consecutive hours during the time that the polls are open (9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.). If your work day starts at noon, or ends by 5:00 p.m., you have the three hours required by legislation and are not entitled to additional time off.
