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Elections Alberta says it has verified that a citizen initiative petition looking to force a vote on the province separating from Canada was able to surpass the number of signatures it required.
But the future of the petition remains on hold, Elections Alberta said in a news release on Friday afternoon.
The verification process was conducted between July 6 and July 23, and has now been completed, the non-partisan office said.
Gordon McClure, the province’s chief electoral officer, determined that while requirements have been met, any further steps in the citizen initiative process are stayed pending direction from the Court of Appeal of Alberta.
Stay Free Alberta, the group behind the petition, previously said almost 302,000 signatures had been collected, far more than the nearly 178,000 needed under provincial legislation.
Elections Alberta said the total number of valid signatures counted was 279,337 and using random statistical sampling, the office said it found 222,597 verified signatures.
Elections Alberta said the most frequent reasons signatures were rejected during the validation phase included incomplete addresses, electors not completing their declarations that they were eligible electors, canvassers signing their witness declarations before electors signed the petition, and electors providing a mailing address instead of the required physical residential address.
The petition was submitted in early May, but just two weeks later, a Court of King’s Bench ruling quashed it. The judge ruled McClure made an error in law to approve the second citizen initiative petition and failed to consider an earlier court decision that said separation would violate Indigenous people’s treaty rights.
But last month, Stay Free Alberta earned a partial win in court when another judge ruled the signature verification process should take place while the original ruling is appealed.
Premier Danielle Smith has called a referendum for Oct. 19, when Albertans will be asked a number of questions, including if they want to remain in Canada or start the process of having a second, binding vote on separation.
More to come.
