Voters looking to cast their ballots early can get a jump on election day lines by casting their ballots at advance poll locations.
From Oct. 4 through 10, Calgarians can visit their local advance voting station. Elections Calgary has 37 advance voting stations across the city.
Voters must vote at their assigned voting location. Some advanced voting stations will be in different locations on Saturday and Sunday.
Locations for the voting stations can be found on electionscalgary.ca or through the Calgary Public Library’s Plan My Vote website.
What to bring to your voting station
The municipal election requires that all voters show identification.
These can include government-issued ID, government-issued documents such as an income or property tax document, and school, college or university documents. Utility bills, bank statements, or residential lease or mortgage documents also are acceptable forms of ID.
Voters can also be attested to by a representative of a supportive living facility, treatment centre, correctional facility or emergency shelter, residential landlord, or a post-secondary representative.
Voters are also encouraged to pre-fill in and sign their voter statement form to save time at the polls. Copies will be available at the voting stations if voters decide not to pre-complete their forms.
How to cast a ballot
Voting station staff will direct voters to where they need to go when voters arrive at the polls.
Once voting station staff have confirmed a voter’s identity, they will be given a ballot.
Voters will then be directed to a privacy booth where they can mark their ballots in secret.
On the municipal ballot voters will have the option to select who they wish to elect for mayor, who they wish to elect for their ward councillor, who they wish to elect for school trustee, and whether they are in favour of returning fluoride to the city’s water supply.
Provincial ballots will contain options of who voters wish to select for nomination to Canada’s Senate, whether equalization payments should be removed from Canada’s constitution, and whether Alberta should adopt year-round daylight-saving time.
Once completed voters will return their ballots to the voting station’s tabulator clerk. Ballots will be scanned by the tabulator and the paper ballot securely stored.
Voting during the Covid-19 pandemic
Additional hours have been allocated to voting stations this election because of the pandemic.
The province’s health orders exempt voting stations from capacity limits. Elections Calgary staff will be encouraging social distancing and mask-wearing. Voters are asked to bring their own pen or pencil.
Curbside voting is available to those not wanting to wear a mask inside voting stations.
