Alberta referendum results delayed until past 10 p.m. as voting continues

Albertans headed to the polls on Monday to have their say on 10 referendum questions, most prominently one on potentially pursuing secession from Canada, with results not expected to come until late Monday night or early Tuesday morning.

Voting began at 8 a.m. Monday in the referendum first announced by Premier Danielle Smith seven months ago.

Most polls were slated to close at 8 p.m. Monday night although 106 locations that opened late or temporarily closed would remain open, as late as 10 p.m. in the case of Edmonton’s Westminster School.

Election rules state results can’t be shared until all voting locations have closed, meaning results won’t be made public until after 10 p.m.

Elections Alberta has forecasted a voter turnout of between 80 per cent and 85 per cent compared to an average turnout of just over 55 per cent for the last five provincial elections, though through late afternoon Monday there were few reports of issues or long lines at polling stations.

The initial five questions on the ballot centre on immigration followed by four more on constitutional change and the tenth question regarding separation as announced by Smith in May.

Option 1 on the tenth question calls for Alberta to remain a part of Canada. Option 2 calls for the province to begin the process of holding a binding referendum on separation.

Voting has been underway since Sept. 1 when special mail-in ballots first became available. Coupled with last week’s advance voting, more than 1.3 million ballots had already been cast heading into Monday’s general voting day, accounting for 43 per cent of eligible votes already.

Last year, government legislation eased the availability of special ballots, that had previously only been available in exceptional circumstances, to make them available to any voter who wanted to use the mail-in process.

Elections Alberta has previously said it estimates full results to Question 10 on separation to be tallied by between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. early Tuesday. Results of the other nine questions will be counted and shared later Tuesday and into the following day.

Ballots are being hand-counted due to a ban on vote tabulators introduced by the provincial government.

Smith has pushed for Albertans to vote to remain in Canada while also supporting the nine other questions her government has put on the ballot.

In advocating for those options, she has cited historical grievances under prior federal governments but also an improved relationship with Ottawa under Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“I am going to do whatever I can to convince as many Albertans as possible that Canada can work and hopefully win them over to that view,” she told a business crowd in Leduc earlier this month.

“The fight to make Canada work for Alberta is producing results. When Alberta stood up and spoke out and refused to back down, the rest of the country started listening. That’s why I believe our best days are still ahead, as a strong Alberta within a united Canada.”

Opponents have accused her of catering to a strong separatist element in her governing United Conservative Party (UCP) base, and putting her thumb on the scale by relaxing citizen initiative requirements and circumventing court rulings to ensure a separation vote would be held.

“If you believed in Canada, you would have done what every other premier of Alberta has ever done, which is to tell the separatists to go pound sand and try to win an election, not to carry their water,” Alberta Official Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi said last month.

In May, Postmedia contacted the constituency offices of all 47 UCP MLAs but received statements in response only from cabinet ministers and none from backbench MLAs.

At least one government MLA, Red Deer-South’s Jason Stephan, has told media he has voted for Option 2, while Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen has repeatedly avoided saying how he intended to vote.