‘Alarming and confusing’: Some transgender Albertans’ referendum ballots have wrong gender, name

When Rowan Venedam applied to Elections Alberta for a special ballot ahead of the fall referendum vote, he was hoping to get extra time with the questions.

“When I opened my ballot and saw that my gender was female, I was shocked because I had changed it over four years ago,” he said.

Venedam was surprised to find the wrong information on his voter registration, especially since he voted with the correct information in the last election.

Now, his photo ID doesn’t match the documents he needs to send in with his ballot, and he’s unsure if his vote will be counted.

He’s worried the issue could create barriers for other transgender Albertans hoping to vote in this election.

“So I know for some folks seeing this, it is very devastating,” Venedam said. “It’s incredibly painful, but it also is frightening of what could happen in the future.”

Venedam, who runs Trans Action Alberta, says he’s heard from 26 other Albertans who have the same issue. One person, he says, changed their name and gender 15 years ago and has never voted with any other information in Alberta.

Calgary’s Artie Four, who also saw the wrong names and gender with his ballot, is unsure of what to do.

“So my first thought was, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to vote, and I would really love to be able to have a say in this,” Four said.

This is despite Four updating his information with Elections Alberta before requesting his ballot and voting in a previous election. He’s questioning why this is happening.

“But I think when trans people in Alberta have already been so beaten down by this government, there’s that eye roll of like, ‘the Alberta government is doing it again.’

“They don’t seem to like us.”

Venedam believes transgender Albertans could be at risk of exposing their private information on voting day.

“I think for folks who don’t live a trans experience, it can be hard to understand why this is an issue,” he said. “But imagine if you walked in and you presented your ID and it said male, but the voter registration said female. That would also be alarming to you. It would be confusing to you.

“It’s alarming and confusing to us too, for the same reasons.”

Elections Alberta tells CityNews it’s heard from two people about the issue.

“If an elector’s name change is not reflected on their special ballot, it indicates their voter registration record is not updated with their name change,” said spokesperson Maia Hanrahan.

They are asked to contact the special ballot team at 1-877-672-1365 to have their information corrected.

–With files from Lauren Boothby