During the March, 2008 general election in Alberta, there were widespread concerns in Edmonton Riverview and across Alberta about the administration of voting. These problems had been building for years, and the result was that on Election Day in 2008 many Albertans had serious difficulties trying to vote. Thousands of people were not on the voters list, which meant they had to stand in line --sometimes for hours-- to swear a statutory declaration before they could vote. The locations of voting station were often confused, so voters were sometimes re-directed to a second location to vote, and then sometimes a third. There were serious concerns about the availability and application of special ballots, about the need for personal I.D., and even cases of apparent voter fraud.
There is no reason that elections in Alberta should not run smoothly and fairly. As an MLA, I feel it is part of my duty to protect the right to vote in Alberta, and as a Canadian I appreciate that the first right under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the right to vote in federal and provincial elections.
On December 18, 2009, as part of a group of concerned Albertans, I filed a legal document asking the court to declare that the conduct of the 2008 general election impinged the right of some Albertans to vote. If the court makes that declaration then it is an authoritative legal statement advising the government that the next election should be properly run. Such a statement could become important if the next election contains serious irregularities.
To learn more about this action, and if you have concerns about how the last election was run, please go to the website of Public Interest Alberta, one of the organizations helping with this application. Their website is http://www.pialberta.org
