More than 1.3 million votes cast in advance polls for Alberta referendum, Elections Alberta says

More than a million Albertans have voted in a referendum on fundamental questions about the province’s future, preliminary figures show. Elections Alberta says 1,356,873 votes were cast between Oct. 13 and Oct. 17 through advance voting and special ballots. At the same point in the 2023 provincial election campaign, 809,988 votes had been cast.

The referendum total includes 837,791 ballots cast at advance voting locations and 519,082 special ballots returned by mail. In 2023, there were 758,637 advance votes and 51,351 special ballots. Elections Alberta says the 2023 special ballot total is “not directly comparable” because those ballots were not available to all eligible electors and did not have to be returned by mail.

There were 3,148,343 eligible electors for the referendum. The agency says 43 per cent voted during the advance period, compared with 27.5 per cent at the same point in the 2023 election.

A recent Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News found little support for proceeding to a binding vote on separation. Seven in 10 Albertans said they planned to vote for Alberta to remain a province of Canada, unchanged from polling conducted the previous month. The share who said they would vote for Alberta to begin the legal process of holding a binding referendum on separation rose three percentage points from September, to 23 per cent.

Support was highest among men (27 per cent), people aged 35 to 54 (27 per cent) and people living outside Calgary and Edmonton (29 per cent). Premier Danielle Smith has said that if voting goes as polling suggests, she expects everyone to accept the result and move on. Leaders of the independence movement dispute that view.

Separation is one of 10 questions on the ballot; the other nine concern immigration and the constitution. A September poll for Global News found 76 per cent of Albertans knew the upcoming referendum would include several questions. Eighty-one per cent said they planned to vote, and 62 per cent said they would vote on all 10 questions.

Global News will provide extensive results coverage on television and online. Anchors Dallas Flexhaug and Carole Anne Devaney will be joined by veteran political reporter and Ottawa bureau chief David Akin for results analysis. A political panel hosted by anchor Blake Lough and reporters on the ground will also contribute.

“Decision Alberta Referendum 2026” will air from 8 p.m. to midnight MT on Globalnews.ca, YouTube and the Global TV app, which is available on Prime Video, Apple TV, Roku and select smart TVs. The special will begin airing live on Global News stations across Alberta at 9 p.m.

With files from Global News’ Rachel Morgan, Jace Maki and Karen Bartko.

Ipsos polls containing online data are measured using a credibility interval. The overall poll surveyed 801 Albertans and is accurate to within plus or minus 4.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, if all adult Alberta residents had been polled. The credibility interval is wider among population subsets. All sample surveys and polls may also be subject to other sources of error, including coverage and measurement error.