Judge rejects NDP court challenge on Alberta’s ‘temporary’ voter list changes

An Alberta judge has rejected a court challenge to new rules mandating provincial political parties receive only bare bones information in voter lists from Elections Alberta.

The Opposition NDP challenged the rules in court after they were implemented on  last month by Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government.

However, Court of King’s Bench Justice John Gill said in a written decision that Smith’s government has the right to do it and noted this is a stopgap solution until the government tables legislation this fall as it has said it plans to do.

“This is a temporary measure,” Gill wrote in his judgment, issued Thursday.

He also disagreed with NDP’s assertion that the new rules could undermine the integrity of the Oct. 19 provincial referendum on whether Alberta should look at leaving Canada, or harm the party’s ability to communicate with voters.

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Gill, in his judgment, said nothing was stopping the NDP from using billboards or social media to communicate with voters, or from using the detailed version of the voter list it received last year.

The NDP had also argued in court that the government overstepped its authority by making the changes through regulation rather than bringing in legislation.

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Gill said the government was acting within its authority, particularly in “preventing unauthorized use and disclosure of personal information of electors.”

The NDP was also worried that, without a complete voter list, their scrutineers could not properly oversee the referendum ballot count, but Gill said voter lists aren’t by law supposed to be used by scrutineers, anyway.

The government’s new policy instructs Elections Alberta to only provide political parties with the number of registered voters in each voting area and municipality.

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Before, registered political parties could get far more information on each registered voter — first and last names, addresses, phone numbers and unique voter identification numbers.

The government has said the new policy responds to a major privacy breach over five months ago involving a separatist group.

The breach remains under investigation by Elections Alberta, RCMP and the provincial privacy watchdog.

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On Friday, Smith criticized the NDP for going to court at all. A post on her social media said protecting voter information after a major privacy breach should be a non-partisan issue.

“This was a shameful display by the NDP,” it said.

Heth Wilson, executive director of the NDP, said the party won’t appeal the decision.

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However, she said the government is “harming the ability of all parties to scrutinize the referendum and get people out to vote to save Canada.”

Wilson also said she takes issue with Smith trying to frame the NDP as being eager to risk Albertans’ private information considering it took Smith’s government months to take action after the breach and, to date, nobody involved has faced penalties.

“This (regulation) was only made after they lost the Calgary-Shaw byelection, and it’s only being done to help Danielle Smith’s separatist friends.”

1:48 Changes made to Alberta registered voter list

The NDP’s request for a court order to have Elections Alberta provide the party with an updated copy of the detailed voter list despite the new regulation was also denied by Gill.

The party had requested an updated copy in August, and argued that Elections Alberta had time to provide it before the new rules took affect but inexplicably didn’t.

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Gill said the timing of the request was meaningless, and that Elections Alberta must follow the rules of disclosure at the time it distributes copies of the list.

The NDP has said it requested an updated list because as many as 100,000 new voters are now in the province since it last received a copy in June 2025.