Elections Alberta says six recall petitions targeting UCP MLAs fail to reach signature threshold

CALGARY — Six recall petitions all targeting UCP MLAs have failed after none collected enough signatures to trigger a recall vote, while a separate petition against an NDP MLA was withdrawn before verification could be completed.Alberta Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure said in a statement on Friday that the withdrawn petition targeted Alberta NDP member Amanda Chapman — MLA for Calgary-Beddington — and was terminated after the applicant formally withdrew the application.For the six petitions whose signature period has ended, Elections Alberta completed the first stage of verification and in the preliminary count found that none had collected the required amount of signatures needed to meet the threshold to proceed.Under the current Alberta recall rules, a petition must gather signatures from 60% of the voters in the riding who cast ballots in the most recent provincial election.The petition targeting Peter Singh, the MLA for Calgary-East, required 8,593 signatures based on turnout in the 2023 provincial election but produced only 556 signatures during the preliminary count.The campaign to oust Tanya Fir, MLA for Calgary-Peigan, required 13,051 signatures and only received 2,093..Three more recall petitions fail — with more than half having failed so far.The effort aimed at Rebecca Schulz, MLA for Calgary-Shaw, required 15,000 signatures but produced a measly 211.In Red Deer-North, a petition against Adriana LaGrange needed 11,174 signatures and collected 2,415.In Strathcona-Sherwood Park, the operation against Minister of Technology and Innovation Nate Glubish saw just 1,326 signatures gathered out of a needed 15,770.And finally, Premier Danielle Smith (Brooks-Medicine Hat), who also had a bullseye on her back, saw the campaign against her gather 2,317 signatures out of a required 12,070.Due to the preliminary counts showing the petitions could not meet the required thresholds, Elections Alberta ended the verification process without proceeding to a full count.Financial reporting obligations for the recall campaigns still remain in place.Each authorized participant’s chief financial officer must file a financial report detailing contributions and expenses related to the recall effort within 30 days of the petition submission date or within 30 days after the canvassing period has expired, whichever comes first.Those reports are mandatory even if a petition was withdrawn or terminated.According to Elections Alberta, failure to meet the filing deadline automatically triggers a $500 late filing fee.

Elections Alberta says six recall petitions targeting UCP MLAs fail to reach signature threshold

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