Advance municipal voter turnout falls in both of Alberta’s major cities
Advance voter turnout dropped in Alberta’s two largest cities, though Edmonton saw higher daily participation rates despite a shorter polling period during the municipal elections.
Advance voter turnout dropped in Alberta’s two largest cities, though Edmonton saw higher daily participation rates despite a shorter polling period during the municipal elections.
In Edmonton, 41,340 residents voted in advance of the municipal election between Oct. 7 and Oct. 11, according to the City of Edmonton. This is down from 63,834 in 2021, when polls were open for 10 days instead of five.
On average, 8,268 voters participated per day this year, compared to 6,383 per day in 2021.
Turnout steadily rose, peaking at 10,698 on the final day. Edmonton’s last municipal election saw an overall turnout of 37.6 per cent, with just over 230,000 of the city’s 629,000 eligible voters casting ballots.
Based on 2021 eligible voter numbers, about 6.5 per cent of Edmontonians cast advance ballots. However, if Edmonton’s voter base grew at Calgary’s rate, advance turnout would be closer to 6 per cent.
In Calgary, advance turnout also declined. The City Clerk’s Office reported 96,549 voters between Oct. 6 and Oct. 11 — representing 10.7 per cent of eligible electors. This is down from 141,329 early voters in 2021, which was almost 16.7 per cent of eligible voters.
The highest daily total was Saturday, Oct. 11, when 22,144 Calgarians voted — roughly twice Edmonton’s final-day count.
The lower advance numbers come as mayoral frontrunners in both cities make their final push before election day on Oct. 20.
Recent polling highlighted that Jeromy Farkas led in Calgary with 27 per cent support, followed by incumbent Jyoti Gondek and councillor Sonya Sharp, each at 23 per cent.
True North previously highlighted Farkas’ advocacy for “hate-tracking programs,” his opposition to Alberta’s efforts to enforce a ban on child gender transitions, and other progressive policies.
Edmonton polling showed a wider gap, with Andrew Knack seeing 41 per cent support, followed by fellow councillor Tim Cartmell at 21 per cent.
Similar to Farkas, Knack recently supported various progressive policies, including drug consumption sites and 15-minute cities.
Both Calgary and Edmonton head to the polls on Oct. 20.
UCP has cleaned up some of the tools that the corrupt elite system was using to cheat in elections. No longer can people vote with out their ID, Voter lists are not given out to parties in advance so fake voters can vote for people who never vote. People can't vote anywhere they want, they must vote at their home riding. All ballots are counted by hand now, and must not be destroyed to avoid re-counts like Election Alberta did in 2023. And the ballot counters are gone. Still we have no way to check if a person is really a citizen when they vote, so many non- Canadians are still voting. But, voting will be more secure this election.
In this corner..CHINA...in the next corner..Islam...in the next corner...the UN Liberals..and in the last corner...Canada (armed with slingshots).🇨🇦