EDMONTON — The Alberta NDP is legally challenging the UCP's decision to limit access to information on Alberta's electoral list until the end of 2026, but Premier Danielle Smith says her government is only doing what the Alberta NDP asked it to do.The UCP issued an order in council on Sept. 17 modifying the Election Act to temporarily limit the information available via the list of electors by prohibiting lists from including information about individual electors, including names, addresses, telephone numbers and unique identifiers.Smith's government said these restrictions will remain in place until Dec. 31, after the Republican Party of Alberta allegedly leaked a copy of its list to the pro-independence advocacy group The Centurion Project in April. .The Alberta NDP's most recent list is from June 2025. It is seeking a court injunction to stop the order, claiming that limiting access to updated voter information restricts the party's scrutineers from doing their jobs effectively when Oct. 19 referendum ballots are counted. Alberta NDP house leader and MLA Christina Gray gave the example of scrutineers not knowing whether a small apartment could have 24 electors registered at the address, which she said opens the door to fraud in the referendum. Gray accused the UCP of issuing the order to help Alberta independence supporters."To me, it looks like service to their separatist friends, potentially opening the door to fraud, and I'm deeply concerned, and that's why the Alberta NDP is going to fight for democracy," said Gray to reporters prior to a court hearing on Tuesday..Smith has framed the Alberta NDP's challenge as contradictory, claiming her government issued the order to protect voter information after the electoral list, something the opposition party asked for throughout the spring."This is what the NDP had been asking us to do," Smith told reporters on Wednesday after the Western Standard asked her about the challenge. "This is what Elections Alberta had been asking us to do.""It's temporary. It'll be in place only until the end of the year, until we can work on legislation in the fall, and I hope that the official opposition will support us in that because this is exactly what they've been asking us to do for months.".Gray questions the timing of the order, especially in light of the Alberta NDP's victory in September's Calgary-Shaw byelection."The legislature was sitting when that data breach happened," Gray said. "If we needed to change legislation, if we needed to tighten the rules, there have been opportunities.""Instead, what the government appears to be doing is trying to obscure and hide information that is necessary to scrutinize the election and to make sure that voter integrity and election integrity is maintained."
