EDMONTON — Several nationalist third-party advertisers are demanding that Elections Alberta appoint both pro-independence and federalist scrutineers for Alberta's referendum, arguing that failing to do so will raise unnecessary questions about the vote's legitimacy."I think in order for the results to be accepted by Albertans on either side, it needs to look at least fair, that everybody participated in it," said Jason Lavigne, head of The Lavigne Show TPA, in an interview with the Western Standard on Tuesday."By removing TPAs, especially Option Two organizations, if the results come back as an Option One vote, it's going to be difficult for people to accept those results as is. We need to give the perception of fairness throughout this entire process, so there is no one side complaining that the results are not fair.".Alberta's election laws permit political parties to provide scrutineers to oversee ballot counting in elections and referendums. They also give Elections Alberta the authority to approve additional representatives recommended by TPAs if the chief electoral officer deems it necessary.Scrutineers from both political parties typically represent opposing sides of a debate. However, the Alberta NDP and much of the UCP government, including Premier Danielle Smith, have said they are voting to keep Alberta in Canada.Elections Alberta welcomed scrutineer nominations from TPAs, but on Friday the election office sent organizers a letter saying the chief electoral officer would not appoint their representatives because of limited physical space at voting and counting locations..Seven leading pro-independence TPAs responded with a letter of their own on Monday, demanding that Elections Alberta compromise by allowing scrutineers from the Let Alberta Decide nationalist advertiser and the Forever Canadian federalist group."I fully understand that Elections Alberta has had a large number of TPAs sign up, so there were concerns about trying to accommodate all of them," Lavigne said."And this is why the compromise that we proposed as a group of seven was to just select one of our groups to be their scrutineers and support the other side to also have some of their scrutineers there, because I think it's important that both sides are there."Pathway to Independence TPA leader Cory Morgan said the group's request should not be too difficult.The Western Standard has reached out to Elections Alberta. .Some Alberta independence supporters began scrutinizing and questioning the October referendum months ago, with concerns ranging from the enforcement of advertising laws to verifying voter citizenship. Some have even suggested that the Alberta NDP may have requested special ballots on people's behalf.Morgan said the lack of nationalist scrutineers would not personally lead him to question the referendum's legitimacy, but it would invite unnecessary questions from Alberta independence supporters who are already skeptical."When I'm talking about the trust issue," Morgan said in an interview with the Western Standard, "it's if you can't have the transparency, just to have those eyes and ensure it, then some of the people who naturally don't trust these things will question the validity of it."And how do you claim that their concerns were invalid if you didn't allow people in to scrutinize and just watch the process from start to beginning on both sides of the issue?".Lavigne said he and the other TPA leaders want to help Alberta independence supporters trust the referendum results and move forward, regardless of how the vote plays out. However, he said not allowing any nationalist scrutineers undermines their ability to do so."We, really simply, just want to put this to bed so we can move forward on Oct. 20 in a more productive manner than what is kind of being set up right now at this stage with the rhetoric you're seeing online, because people are very, very upset," Lavigne said.The TPAs have given Elections Alberta until Tuesday at 5 p.m. to respond to their letter.
