Elections Alberta asks Elections Manitoba staffers to help during referendum

By: Carol Sanders Posted: 3:11 PM CDT Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026 Last Modified: 7:30 PM CDT Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026 | Updates

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Manitoba’s non-partisan elections management agency could help its Alberta counterpart with that province’s October referendum — an event one political expert expects to be a “shemozzle.”

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Manitoba’s non-partisan elections management agency could help its Alberta counterpart with that province’s October referendum — an event one political expert expects to be a “shemozzle.”

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Manitoba’s non-partisan elections management agency could help its Alberta counterpart with that province’s October referendum — an event one political expert expects to be a “shemozzle.”

Elections Alberta has asked Elections Manitoba to send staff to assist with the vote, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Manitoba confirmed Wednesday.

The Oct. 19 referendum will ask Albertans 10 questions, including whether that province should remain part of Canada.

CHRIS YOUNG / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES
Elections Manitoba has been asked to help out with Alberta’s upcoming referendum. — CHRIS YOUNG / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES

Elections Manitoba has been asked to help out with Alberta’s upcoming referendum.

Each of the referendum questions will be on separate numbered and colour-coded ballots, which will be counted by hand. With an estimated 2,966,192 voters in the province — registered as of May 2025 — there could be as many as 30 million ballots to count.

“There’s every reason to believe that election referendum day is going to be a shemozzle,” University of Calgary political science Prof. Lisa Young said Wednesday.

Young said Elections Alberta was in a pickle for two reasons.

“First of all, rather than there being one ballot, in this instance, you’re going to walk in and have a choice of getting all 10 ballots or maybe not all 10. You can say, ‘Oh no, I only want the separation question’ or ‘I’ll take all 10’,” Young said.

Voters will choose which referendum questions to vote on and then return the colour-coded ballots to the correct colour-coded box.

“The second thing that people need to understand is that the province of Alberta has expressly forbidden the use of vote tabulators,” she said, due to “paranoia” in certain political circles bout voting machines.

“Once we’ve actually got all of these votes into the right colour-coded boxes, somebody’s going to have to sit and hand count them.”

Elections Alberta spokesperson Maia Hanrahan said it’s common practice for electoral management bodies (EMB) to support each other during elections.

“Similar invitations and programs happen across the country for major electoral events,” she said in an email.

In this case, it’s all skilled hands on deck.

“A select number of senior, experienced EMB staff with highly specialized expertise are invited to support the core Elections Alberta team to add expert resources in key functional areas during this critical election event,” Hanrahan said.

She said extra would help cover the small team of permanent Elections Alberta staff during the 60-hour election day and count period.

“We are privileged to be receiving support from several of our EMB partners across the country,” she said.

It’s not the first time Elections Manitoba has received requests for help.

“In the past, we have routinely collaborated with election management bodies across Canada to share ideas and offer support where possible,” said Tessa Vanderhart with the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Manitoba.

“We are still considering our capacity to respond to this specific request.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

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Questions on the ballot

Here are the 10 Alberta referendum questions:

1. Should Alberta remain a province of Canada, or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?

2. Do you support the Government of Alberta taking increased control over immigration for the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels, prioritizing economic migration and giving Albertans first priority on new employment opportunities?

3. Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law mandating that only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and individuals with an Alberta approved immigration status will be eligible for provincially funded programs, such as health care, education and other social services?

4. Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for social support programs as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring all individuals with a non-permanent legal immigration status to reside in Alberta for at least 12 months before qualifying for any provincially funded social support programs?

5. Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for public health care and education as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta charging a reasonable fee or premium to individuals with a non-permanent immigration status living in Alberta for their and their family’s use of the health-care and education systems?

6. Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring individuals to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate or citizenship card, to vote in an Alberta provincial election?

7. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to have provincial governments, and not the federal government, select the justices appointed to provincial King’s Bench and Appeal courts?

8. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to abolish the unelected federal Senate?

9. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to allow provinces to opt out of federal programs that intrude on provincial jurisdiction such as health care, education, and social services, without a province losing any of the associated federal funding for use in its social programs?

10. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to better protect provincial rights from federal interference by giving a province’s laws dealing with provincial or shared areas of constitutional jurisdiction priority over federal laws when the province’s laws and federal laws conflict?

— source: Elections Alberta

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.