UCP leadership campaigns reach out after thousands of mail-in ballots are rejected
Thousands of mail-in ballots in the United Conservative Party leadership vote have been rejected and now some voters are receiving phone calls and emails telling them they'll have to vote in person on Thursday.
One such email is from the Danielle Smith leadership campaign, which claims to be an "emergency notice" to the person that their ballot has not been received by the UCP.
"We asked the UCP party to send the email to those whose ballots have not been verified (received), on behalf of our campaign. This is the mechanism all campaigns use to email party members," said a spokesperson with the Smith campaign.
The party confirms that campaigns are contacting people who have not had a ballot that has been received or if their mail-in ballot was rejected.
About 97 per cent of the mail-in ballots that were sent in to choose the UCP's next leader and Alberta's next premier have been verified, a party spokesperson said.
As of Tuesday night, nearly 82,000 ballots had been sent in, meaning thousands of them have been rejected.
"The rest were rejected because they did not meet the requirements, such as an unsigned declaration form or invalid identification. If a mail-in ballot was rejected, that individual is not marked as voted and is still eligible to vote in person," said Dave Prisco, the UCP's director of communications.
In-person voting will happen at five locations in Alberta between 8 a.m. and noon Thursday. Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Taber and Slave Lake are all hosting in-person voting locations.
All of the votes will be counted in Calgary and the city's BMO Centre will be where the new leader will be announced Thursday afternoon.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.