INNISFAIL – Voters in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake will have their say starting today (July 3) for their new provincial MLA.
Advance polls are open July 3, and run every day until July 7.
Elections Alberta has been working to train staff and prepare offices and voting locations for both advance polls and voting day, July 12.
“There are three advance polls between July 3 and 7. They open at 9 a.m. and they close at 8 p.m.,” said Carla Gabert, returning officer for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake. “They’re running Tuesday to Saturday (this week) so there’s lots of opportunities to get out and vote.”
Advance polls will be held at the Delburne and District Drop In Centre in Delburne, Fox Run School in Sylvan Lake and at the Returning Office in Innisfail.
“The yellow 'where to vote' cards should be arriving in people’s mailboxes any day,” said Gabert.
Polling stations on July 12 include those in Red Deer County, Penhold, Bowden, Elnora, Spruce View, Delburne, Sylvan Lake and Innisfail.
“We hired just under 200 staff to run the byelection,” said Gabert, noting other duties include printing the ballots, candidate registration, setting up polls and confirming locations.
She noted several key positions required for a byelection, including a supervisory deputy returning officer, a registration officer, an information officer, deputy returning officers and poll clerks.
Gabert also pointed out one important reminder for voters.
“On election day or for the advance polls, if you have a ‘where to vote’ card, bring it along. If you don’t, (but) your names are on the electors' list we actually don’t require identification,” said Gabert. “If you’re not on the list we require one piece of photo ID or two pieces of non-photo ID with one of them listing a physical address,” she added.
Results of the byelection will unofficially be announced after polls close and all ballots are counted on July 12.
Gabert said there are just over 33,000 electors in the riding. In the last provincial election in May 2015, a total of 18,344 votes were cast in the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake riding.
