Seat counts unchanged after Elections Alberta releases unofficial results
'Vote anywhere' ballots had counters working through Good Friday
Elections Alberta has counted the final poll, and released its unofficial election results Friday.
The unofficial results were released around 6:30 p.m. Friday, and a number of candidates who were in close races took to social media to concede.
The NDP candidate in Calgary-Varsity, Anne McGrath, conceded to her UCP competitor Jason Copping, before the unofficial results were released.
I would like to congratulate Jason Copping on his victory. I would also like to congratulate my felllow candidates in the riding for putting their names forward. While this is not the outcome I wanted, I respect the choice made by voters.
—@NDPAnneBrian Malkinson, the incumbent NDP candidate in Calgary-Currie, also congratulated his UCP counterpart Nicholas Milliken Friday morning.
I had a chance to call <a href="https://twitter.com/NickMilliken?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NickMilliken</a> personally this afternoon to congratulate him. My full message is below. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/yyccurrie?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#yyccurrie</a> <a href="https://t.co/es01vUiXGk">pic.twitter.com/es01vUiXGk</a>
—@BrianMalkinsonAnd Miranda Rosin of the UCP secured her win over the NDP's incumbent candidate in Banff-Kananaskis, Cam Westhead — who was elected in 2015 in Banff-Cochrane before the riding boundaries were shifted.
"It has been an honour and a privilege serving the people of Banff-Cochrane, who are as inspiring as the landscapes that surround them," Westhead wrote on Facebook. "Together, we made great strides towards addressing priorities like affordability and protecting the environment."
In the tight Calgary-Falconridge race, UCP's Devinder Toor led over the NDP's Parmeet Singh, with the unofficial count coming down to just 102 votes.
Singh conceded to Toor on Facebook, and wrote a post to thank his family, volunteers and supporters.
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In Edmonton-South West the UCP's Kaycee Madu held the lead over NDP rival John Archer. Archer wrote on Facebook that he called Madu to congratulate him.
Edmonton-West Henday NDP candidate Jon Carson led UCP's Nicole Williams by 490 votes. On Instagram, Williams said she is proud to have been a part of the United Conservative Party team.
Unofficial results from the Lethbridge-West riding show former environment minister Shannon Phillips led over Karri Flatla of the UCP by 225 votes.
Full unofficial results are available on the Elections Alberta website. Those counts won't be official until 10 days after the election on April 26.
As of Tuesday night, the UCP were projected to win, or leading, with 63 seats while the NDP managed to take 24 seats. Those numbers were unchanged following the release of the unofficial results.
This was the first year Albertans were allowed to "vote anywhere" from polling stations across the province during the advance vote, which ran from April 9 to April 13.
There were around 223,000 out-of-electoral-district votes to be processed in order to determine results in some of the tight races. The count started Wednesday afternoon with the ballots from all the locations open for the full five days of the advance vote, and unofficial results were released on Friday.
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Unofficial voter turnout is 71.1 per cent based on 1,880,508 votes cast and 2,643,453 registered electors, Elections Alberta said.
With files from Jade Markus