Rural municipalities shifting polling stations to hold provincial referendums, senate elections this fall

By COLLIN GALLANT on September 24, 2021.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Rural municipalities are shifting polling stations to hold provincial referendums and senate elections this fall when they otherwise wouldn’t have had to open some polling stations.

On Oct. 18, all Albertans vote for local government representatives and school board trustees, but if positions are acclaimed – only one nomination per position – no poll is held.

This year, however, Albertans will also be able to vote on daylight savings time, the province’s position on equalization, and a list of potential senate appointments – a vote that piggybacks on local voting conducted by cities, towns and counties.

The province will provide some funding to cover added expenses, but it could be tight where local voting won’t be needed in three sprawling wards in Cypress County, the County of Forty Mile, the town of Bow Island, or four of seven divisions in the M.D. of Taber.

In Cypress County, officials have adjusted to accommodate voters from regions around Schuler, Suffield and north of Redcliff, but won’t open stand-alone stations in those locales simply to collect provincial ballots.

“Those voters will be able to go to any polling station in the county to vote on (provincial questions), but if there’s an election in their ward (for councillor) they vote in their ward,” said Tracey Popick, the county’s chief returning officer.

Any eligible voter can vote on all questions during advanced voting on Oct. 2 at the county’s Dunmore office, including in six races for councillors.

The province will pay municipalities $2 per resident to help with related costs at municipal polling stations, or $4 to conduct the vote if no local election is required and a polling station would otherwise not be needed.

That should cover costs, said Dave Matz, the CRO in the town of Bow Island, where town’s mayor and council positions were acclaimed this week.

The town will handle the provincial issues and as well will ask its own plebiscite on potential routing of Highway 3 improvements by the province, the plan for which would move the highway four kilometres south of the town.

“Council decided that if we were holding an election, what better time to ask,” said Matz.

Local elections will be conducted in Acadia Valley, Foremost and Oyen, as nominees outnumber positions.

The regional Prairie Rose School Division saw five of seven board trustee positions acclaimed this week, though three nominees for two positions allotted to the Redcliff and Dunmore region.

Those areas will see school board voters accommodated at the Town of Redcliff or at the school board office in Dunmore.