Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she has “some concern” about Elections Alberta’s plan to use tabulators for the provincial election, but votes will be hand counted if a recount is necessary for the May election..“I have confirmed through department officials all votes on Election Day will be counted,” Smith said on Monday..“My understanding of how these voting machines work is it's a paper ballot. And even though the tabulation takes place electronically, we retain a paper ballot so if there's any issue of needing to do a recount, we'll be able to go back to the paper ballots to do that.”.Indigenous rights litigator Leighton Grey, a senior partner with the firm Grey Wowk Spencer LLP, based in Calgary and Cold Lake, recently sent a letter to Chief Electoral Officer Glen L. Resler..“We represent many Albertans concerned with ensuring the integrity of the May 29 Alberta Provincial Election, pursuant to the legislation defined in the Province of Alberta Election Act,” Grey said in the letter..“It has come to our attention you plan to issue a directive enabling machine tabulator counting in the coming Provincial elections. It is abundantly clear to us the framers of the Alberta Election Act intended there be witnessed hand-counting of ballots.”.Grey said the Elections Act grants the responsibility to facilitate accessible voting, with the use of “accessible voting equipment.”.That voting equipment and related vote-counting equipment enable electors requiring assistance to vote independently..“The use of machine voting for the entire Alberta Election is, however, noncompliant with the spirit and intention of the Alberta Elections Act,” Grey said..“Any directive produced by the chief electoral officer must aim to give the voting public confidence that checks and balances are in place to ensure results are above reproach.”.Grey said any directive to extend electronic voting machines to the entire Alberta 2023 election would necessarily impugn the integrity and reliability of its outcome..“This is what occurred in the Calgary municipal elections, where the results could not be appealed because they were machine counted and the ballots were immediately destroyed,” Grey said..Grey's stated concern regarding the ultimate integrity of the May 2023 elections arises consequent to:.The release of the CSIS document entitled Foreign Interference Threats to Canada’s Democratic ProcessThe potential for inaccurate ballot counting using electronic means, such as with ES&S or Dominion Voting Machines; andThe potential for destruction of the paper ballots too soon after the election, which would preclude a recount.Grey then instructed in the letter to seek your confirmation that:.All voters’ eligibility shall be confirmed by a government-issued picture IDAny rejected ballots shall be confirmed by scrutineers present from each partyAll numbered ballots shall be counted manually and accounted forAll ballots shall be secured within a chain of custody signed off by scrutineers present from each partyAll ballots shall be preserved securely for up to three months from the time of the elections, and up to three months from any recountAny party’s candidate may request a recountShould any recounts overturn the electronic counting in that poll, then the party most impacted can require that the entire province-wide vote be recounted using only the paper ballots, with scrutineers from the interested political parties in attendance..“There has been much talk around the world about flaws in machine voting,” Grey said..“This is a crucial election for the future of Alberta and so the eyes of every Albertan and, indeed, the nation are upon you. It is thus imperative that you take all reasonable steps to uphold and preserve the fairness and integrity of the electoral process.”.Smith told the Western Standard Monday she asked her department officials to look into it again, just to make sure that there aren't any concerns..“They come back to me and they said that the hand count will take place the day of and that we will retain paper copies in the event that there is any issue that needs to require a recount,” Smith said..“I've used Scantron machines before, we have a paper ballot and then it goes through and electronically tabulated and I've also witnessed even in my hometown of High River. They had to do a hand count because it was so close.”.Smith said she has “confidence” the results will be right because there is the ability to do a hand count as a follow-up in the event of close results..“If there are close results I believe that (hand-counting) is going to be sufficient,” Smith said..“I think the issue in the US was that there are machines where you don't also have a tabulator.”.The election will be held in Alberta on May 29.
