Keeping Alberta’s Elections Secure
Delivering fair and secure electoral events is essential to maintaining election integrity. At Elections Alberta, our processes are built with this in mind.
A fair election is one in which every eligible elector has an accessible voting option, votes are recorded and counted accurately, and voting stations are free from partisan influence.
A secure election includes safeguards to protect against fraud, interference, and deliberate attempts to misinform voters. It also considers the physical safety of voters and election workers in voting locations.
It is also important to know that Elections Alberta partners with many provincial and national law enforcement, security, and cyber-security agencies to assist in keeping our elections secure and fair. We also work with social media platforms to identify and remove deepfakes, and other types of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation.
Learn more about how we’re keeping Alberta elections secure:
Voting Process
Election processes are highly robust, supervised, monitored, and regimented. There are checks and balances at every single step that are not possible to override.
All election officers – the people who work for Elections Alberta in your community to facilitate voting and counting ballots – are vetted. They must
- complete criminal records checks,
- sign oaths of office,
- follow policies preventing participation in any political during their employment,
- comply with our code of conduct, and
- complete rigorous training.
Election officers are your friends, neighbours, and family members who are serving this province and protecting your democratic rights with strict adherence to electoral laws.
As we get closer to an electoral event, watch this space for informative videos demonstrating the voting process.
Scrutineers
Scrutineers may be present at all points in the voting and counting process. Their role is to ensure fairness and transparency and observe election procedures and ballot counting.
You can learn more about scrutineers and the important role they play in our Scrutineers section of our website.
Preventing Foreign Interference
Alberta’s election legislation limits who can vote, run as a candidate, advertise, and contribute to campaigns and political participants.
- Eligible electors must be Canadian citizens and ordinarily resident in Alberta.
- Candidates must be a Canadian citizen, 18 years of age or older on Election Day, and ordinarily resident in Alberta for the 6 months preceding Election Day.
- Political third party advertisers must be Canadian and not be a prohibited corporation.
- All other types of third party advertisers must be Canadian and live or do business in Alberta.
The Elections Finances and Contributions Act assigns Elections Alberta responsibility for:
- Ensuring filing, examination, and public disclosure of financial documents submitted by political parties, constituency associations, candidates, leadership contestants, prospective candidate associations, and third party advertisers is completed.
- Enforcing legislation relating to the collection of contributions by political parties, constituency associations, candidates, leadership contestants, prospective candidate associations, and third-party advertisers.
- Enforcing legislation related to deepfakes.
- Maintaining a register of political parties, constituency associations, candidates, leadership contestants, prospective candidate associations, and third-party advertisers.
- Assisting groups forming new political parties.
- Investigating complaints of breaches of the EFCDA and consenting to prosecution (if warranted).
Elections Alberta works with other electoral management bodies, law enforcement agencies, provincial and national security agencies, and cybersecurity agencies to detect, identify, and address foreign interference activities to keep our elections safe and secure.
We also work with the different social media platforms to identify and remove election misinformation and disinformation.
Media is another key partner. Elections Alberta shares factual information through news releases and interviews. We monitor reporting and assist reporters in getting the information right and correcting errors.
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