Election results could be delayed as Albertans push advanced polls record

There’s no question every Albertan’s vote counts. But how your vote will actually be counted, depends on whether you are voting in advanced polls, or on election day Monday.

Alberta is on track for record breaking advanced voter turn out, with over half a million ballots cast to start Friday.

For the first time in an Alberta election, voters will see electronic tabulators.

“Super cool. You get to see your little vote go in, and then, yeah, its really cool,” said a voter CityNews spoke to.

The machines are only being used in advanced polls, with ballots cast election day Monday being counted by hand.

But the tabulators are already forcing fact-checkers to counter misinformation.

What do people need to know about how the integrity of the vote is being maintained? Robyn Bell a spokesperson with Elections Alberta saying safeguards are in place.

“That is something we take very seriously and so we have multiple safeguards in place to insure that. One of which is our logic and accuracy testing. That occurs before and after voting, in the presence of candidates and their scrutineers.”

The machines have no connection to the internet, and results will only be printed off after polls close Monday.

With all paper ballots preserved in case of a re-counts or issue with the machine.

Bell says this makes it easier to allow people to vote at any advanced polling station. They tried this in 2019, but didn’t have tabulators at each station.

“In 2019, the vote anywhere ballots were then transported to elections Alberta headquarters and counted here by tabulator, which resulted in a three day delay.”

With some tight races projected, this could make a difference in what time on Monday night, we know results.