Premier Danielle Smith on Wednesday brushed off a court battle launched by the Opposition NDP over her government’s changes to Elections Alberta voter list rules.
Smith told reporters in Edmonton that the new restrictions were called for by elections officials earlier this year after a major data breach involving a separatist group and the pro-Independence Republican Party of Alberta.
“That’s what we’ve done,” Smith said at an unrelated news conference.
“We have said that no one is going to get access to detailed private information of Albertans until we have a chance to legislate some guardrails around this in the fall.
“That includes the Republican Party. That includes the NDP. And it includes our party as well.”
The new voter list rules, published last month, say that Elections Alberta can now only provide political parties with the number of voters in each voting area and municipality.
Prior to that, it could offer lists with full names, addresses, phone numbers and unique voter identification numbers.
The government has said the rules are temporary. The regulation is set to expire at the end of the year.
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Smith said Wednesday that the NDP had also asked for the changes, but the Opposition said that’s not the case.
NDP house leader Christina Gray said they wanted to see consequences for those involved in the data breach. She criticized the government for not acting sooner and said the new policy risks the integrity of the upcoming Oct. 19 referendum, which features a question on Alberta’s place in Canada.
“If she was interested in protecting Albertans, there should have been consequences months ago, but she chose to protect her separatist friends,” Gray said in a statement.
“Her decision to temporarily restrict access to the voter list during the referendum period weakens election oversight and undermines confidence in the integrity of our democratic institutions.”
The NDP is challenging the new voter list rules in court.
A lawyer for the party argued in a hearing Tuesday that the government acted beyond its power by changing the voter list rules through regulation rather than legislation, and that the new policy undermines provincial law.
Mandy England, a government lawyer, rejected that argument. She told court the province was within its rights to change the rules the way it did and argued that the NDP’s challenge amounted to a policy disagreement.
She also disputed NDP concerns about how the new rules will limit the ability of party scrutineers to properly observe the ballot count for the referendum.
A decision on the challenge is expected soon.
Smith also said Wednesday that she hoped the NDP would support government legislation coming this fall to introduce new safeguards on voter information.
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