EDMONTON— Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure ordered new verification policies on Friday for all future and active Citizen Initiative petitions, including searching for fake names and addressed from electoral lists issued to the Republican Party of Alberta. McClure made the decision after many Albertans, including Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi, expressed concerns that the leaking of Alberta's List of Electors could lead to fraudulent signatures being placed on petitions to boost. Nenshi expressed specific concern with the Alberta independence petition, saying that he did not trust their collection process. "How do we know that the petition that we haven't seen yet hasn't been salted or padded with information from this database?" said Nenshi on Friday. "So, there are a bunch of very serious questions.""I'm sure Elections Alberta will be able to run a fair and free election on the referendum, but I have no faith whatsoever now in the signature collection process, in the petitions or in anything that got us here." .It was revealed Thursday that The Centurion Project allegedly used data from a copy of Alberta's List of Electors issued to the Republican Party of Alberta to build its online database used to coordinate Alberta independence advocacy efforts.The new process will require verifiers to search the signatures for fake names and addresses that were placed on the copy of Alberta's List of Electors issued to the Republican Party of Alberta, and then implement a more meticulous verification process if any of the names are found on the petition.Some individuals have expressed a desire to know whether their names have been added to one of the petitions; however, Elections Alberta said the Citizen Initiative Act prevents them from telling an individual whether their name is on a petition and from removing names from the lists..Elections Alberta's statement also addressed concerns Albertans have shared about their safety and security following the leak of sensitive information from the electors list."We are hearing from hundreds of Albertans concerned about the impacts of the unauthorized use of the List of Electors by the Centurion Group Ltd.,” said McClure. “People are unhappy, scared, and anxious about the situation.""We have heard countless stories about the risks people face having their information made public, including stories from domestic violence survivors, law enforcement, marginalized communities, and more.""We at Elections Alberta hear you, and share your concerns in a very real way. Our staff are among the 2.9 million Albertans who are on the List of Electors. We agree this is an extremely serious situation."They shared that, although Elections Alberta received initial complaints about potential leaks from the list in early April, strict legislative requirements did not allow them to take action until they had "reasonable grounds to believe an offence has occurred.""'Reasonable grounds' is a much higher standard than 'grounds to warrant' (the previous standard in the legislation), or 'what might seem obvious' based on a complainant’s suspicions or beliefs," the statement reads."This is similar to the amount of evidence that, in a criminal matter, police would need to arrest someone. Elections Alberta takes all complaints seriously, whether or not it is able to start an investigation.".Elections Alberta raised concerns about vulnerabilities left by current legislation and the risk of potential privacy leaks in May 2025 when the UCP introduced the "reasonable grounds" requirment for investigations."[u]nder Bill 54, for an investigation to begin, the Election Commissioner will need to be satisfied that a breach of the Legislation has occurred, before they can speak to anyone about the allegation, or gather and review any records," the letter sent to Justice Minister Mickey Amery in 2025 read."Practically this means that the onus will fall on a complainant to provide a substantively completed investigation in order for the Election Commissioner to look into a matter.”Elections Alberta said the situation involving data allegedly used by The Centurion Project is exactly what they were concerned about.Friday's statement also included support from Elections Alberta for the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta's calls for stricter privacy measures for personal information held by political parties.
