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The number of ballots cast in Alberta’s referendum surpassed one million on Thursday.
That was after 174,500 votes were cast on the first day of advanced polls on Tuesday, 186,700 votes were cast on Wednesday, and 168,200 votes were cast on Thursday, for a total of 529,400 votes over three days of advance polls.
So far, each day’s total is higher than the daily average of 152,000 people seen during the advance voting period in Alberta’s 2023 election, in which 1.7 million people voted for a turnout of 60.5 per cent.
Additionally, some 491,000 special ballots have already been processed, pushing the grand total of cast referendum ballots to 1.02 million — or one third of Alberta’s roughly three million eligible voters.
“Certainly, (there) were some early indicators that Albertans are very interested in this event. The special ballot requests over 650,000; that was 11 times the special ballot requests that we had in the provincial general election. So those are big numbers,” Elections Alberta spokesperson Michelle Gurney told CTV Your Morning Edmonton.
The referendum consists of 10 questions about immigration, constitutional reform, and whether Alberta should hold a second binding referendum to separate from Canada.
Advance polls close Saturday night.
More than 1,400 polling stations will be open Monday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters will be allowed to cast their ballot so long as they join the line before 8 p.m.
Gurney could not speculate as to how the early turnout would affect lines for the rest of the advance voting period and on voting day.
“We do see a peak as soon as voting locations open every day this week; 9 a.m. is a peak and then after dinner is a peak. Two days this week, we’ve had to keep voting locations open later to accommodate everybody who’s in line.”
Workers will begin the hand count of the special and advance ballots at 5 p.m. on Monday. The count of votes cast that day will begin once all the polls are closed.
The votes on separation will be counted first, although Elections Alberta is aiming to deliver all results within 48 hours.
The agency is still 13,000 workers short of its goal. Gurney said it would be hiring workers “right up until Monday.”
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Kent Morrison and The Canadian Press
