Elections Alberta is seeking more election officer applications in seven northern and southern Alberta regions identified as understaffed for special ballot voting services. The areas are Fort McMurray, Peace River, Cardston-Siksika, Lesser Slave Lake, Taber-Warner, Grand Prairie-Wapiti and Rocky Mountain House. Alberta has 87 electoral divisions in total.

“We’re focused now on ensuring the more rural areas have enough election officers,” Elections Alberta said in a release this morning. The agency said 34,000 officers have been hired across the province so far, more than double the 13,000 hired for the 2023 Provincial General Election.

The province is encouraging people to apply in groups to help fill vacancies. “We now have a process for hiring groups to work as election officers,” Elections Alberta said. “Groups like teams, community groups, non-profits, and others can apply as a group directly to the Returning Officer in their electoral division.”

Friday last week was the deadline for voters in the October referendum to pick up or complete in-person applications for special ballot packages. The service allows any Albertan unable to vote in person to cast a ballot by mail, without needing to provide a reason.

Voters may have a ballot mailed to their home or another address, pick it up at their designated Returning Office or at Elections Alberta’s main office in Edmonton, or arrange for someone to collect it from a Returning Office or the agency’s main office. Information about Returning Office locations and contact details, where election officers will report, is available on the Elections Alberta website.

Elections Alberta received 658,000 special ballot requests, with more than 82 per cent approved for fulfilment and mailing. The total is 11 times the 59,589 requests received during the 2023 Provincial General Election.

The agency attributed the increase to the “new availability of special ballot voting to all eligible electors without a reason,” along with voters being required to vote within their electoral division for advance voting or at their assigned location on Election Day, voter interest, and the number of questions electors must vote on.

Elections Alberta said 0.7 per cent of requests were rejected either at the time of application or on return. Nearly 100,000 ballots have been received back and approved, the agency said.

The report also noted related coverage on Alberta referendum questions and whether they target permanent residents and new Canadians, including comments by Schow, as well as an opinion article arguing the referendum turns immigrants into scapegoats for government inaction.

Based on reporting by Edmonton Journal.