Murray Wood: When people show you who they are, act accordingly
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EDMONTON — A viral post on the social media platform X this week shared a claim that mail-in voting for Alberta’s Oct. 19 referendum is “open to anybody” without verification of whether applicants live in the province. Other social media users posted screenshots suggesting they had been able to apply for a mail-in ballot using fake addresses outside the province. But Elections Alberta says it checks all special ballot applications against its voter registration system to exclude any fraudulent ones, and proof of ID is also required to cast a ballot.
THE CLAIM
In a post on Sept. 20, under the words “THIS IS INSANE,” an X user quoted what he said was a message from a follower.
The message said anyone can vote by mail in the Alberta referendum, no matter where they live.
“I just registered, I’m from BC, they didn’t ask me anything. Only clicked a box that I’m a Canadian citizen,” said the message, which received over 201,000 views within 24 hours of its posting. “No verification of Alberta residents and they will mail the ballot anywhere.”
An Alberta lawyer shared a screenshot appearing to show she had successfully submitted her application using an address in Vancouver.
“It appears people can put in a residential address outside of Alberta in order to ‘complete the application process,’ she wrote.
The screenshot appeared to show confirmation from Elections Alberta that an application with an address in Vancouver had been submitted.
THE FACTS
Albertans will vote Oct. 19 in a referendum that asks a total of 10 questions covering immigration and Canada’s Constitution. The central question facing voters is whether the province should remain in Canada or begin the process to hold a binding referendum on separation.
Eligible voters need to have a “place of ordinary residence” in Alberta where they live or to which they intend to return if they are temporarily living outside the province, according to Elections Alberta’s website. The website adds that residents who have established ordinary residence outside the province are ineligible to vote.
Elections Alberta lists voting options on its website, including special ballots that allow voting by mail. The deadline to apply for a special ballot is Friday at midnight, and officials said this week they have received more than 610,000 requests for the mail-in ballots.
Lori Williams, an associate professor of political science at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said the referendum is the first time that special ballots have been made so broadly available in Alberta. In the past, she said, people needed to present evidence of extraordinary circumstances requiring them to vote by mail. “For example, you won’t be in Alberta during the advance polls or on election day,” she said.
Williams said individuals and organizations in Alberta have encouraged voters to register for the ballots to avoid long lineups at voting stations.
The change has led some online users to test the application page to determine how vulnerable it is, with some using the findings to making misleading claims.
Because drop-down menus in the address section offer choices of municipalities outside Alberta, the process apparently allows someone to submit an application listing an address in another province. But Elections Alberta says that just because an application has been submitted, that does not mean it has been approved.
In an emailed response about the registration page and the online claims, Elections Alberta spokesperson Maia Hanrahan said the office designed the page’s first screen to allow applicants to provide addresses that they believe to be accurate without the system blocking them.
Hanrahan explained that the office has a rigorous verification system in place in which staff members manually check all special ballot applications against the voter registration system. She added that if an applicant’s information does not appear in the system or the details do not match what is in the system, their application is denied.
“An out-of-province address cannot simply proceed through the process and be approved. While the initial application screen does not automatically block every address that is not recognized by the system, every submission is subject to human review, and no application with an invalid or out-of-province address will be approved or proceed to the next step,” she said.
Furthermore, the actual mail-in voting process requires the voter to include with their ballots a copy of their government-issued ID showing proof of residence in Alberta.
The Alberta lawyer who posted the screenshot of a submitted ballot application with a Vancouver address also shared the confirmation code she received.
The Canadian Press on Wednesday entered the code into Election Alberta’s special ballot registration status page and found that the application was denied the day after it was submitted. “Your application has been reviewed and declined,” a message said.
Lorne Gibson, a former chief electoral officer for Alberta, said jurisdictions use different methods to vet their applicants’ information for special ballots. Some require ID to be provided with their applications.
“I tend to prefer this approach since it prevents a ballot from ever being sent to a person who is not an eligible voter in the first place,” he said.
In Alberta’s case, he explained that Elections Alberta has tools including VoterLink and the Register of Electors that allow it to verify an applicant’s information and determine if they are eligible before mailing out a ballot.
He added that the potential penalties for someone trying to vote illegally are high, with possible fines of up to $50,000 and possible jail terms of up to two years.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2026.
Timon Johnson, The Canadian Press
