Referendum ballot count continues for Elections Alberta as 48-hour deadline approaches
Posted Oct 21, 2026 9:46 am.
The count continues for Elections Alberta, as it works to get the unofficial results done and reported to Albertans.
Election officials are still confident it can be done in the 48 hours required.
“The count’s going really well from our perspective,” Elections Alberta spokesperson Michelle Gurney told CityNews Tuesday. “The teams are working around the clock, and so the count continues.
“We’re feeling good about that.”
Election workers have been busy since at least 5 p.m. Monday, counting special ballots, advance votes, and those cast on election day.
READ: Alberta referendum results for all 10 questions
Question 10 was going to be counted first with the rest of the nine looked at in order.
By 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, 93 per cent of polling stations have been reported.
This despite 106 polling stations closing late on election night, including two that were open past 10 p.m. – one being Westminster School west of downtown Edmonton, where the polling station had to be reconfigured.
“As well, we had one First Nation community that stayed open until 10:10 p.m. scheduled, but it was actually open till around 10:42 p.m., and that was to accommodate another delivery of ballots for that location,” said Gurney.
Complete voter turnout won’t be known until all votes have been counted.
Expectations of a huge turnout are being realized, but as votes are being counted, those doing the work have noticed the other nine questions are not getting the same response rate as question 10.
“So there are a lot of people who thought that the separation question was the important one, the one they wanted to weigh in on, and they either didn’t feel comfortable with or perhaps didn’t understand or didn’t know how to respond to those other questions, and we’re seeing those numbers considerably lower,” said Lori Williams, a political science professor at Mount Royal University.
Election law makes the unofficial results get reported 48 hours after polls close.
