Alberta’s government says it has made temporary changes to rules governing provincial voter lists after a major privacy breach. The province published a new policy Thursday that says copies of Alberta’s official voter list given to political parties will only include the number of voters in each voting area and municipality. The list previously included first and last names, home addresses, phone numbers and a unique identifier for each registered voter. The list is managed by Elections Alberta and distributed to political parties, legislators, election candidates and constituency associations for things like campaigns and fundraising. The change comes after a separatist group published a database in the spring that elections officials said included private information of nearly three million Albertans. Investigators traced the database to a copy of the list given to a fringe political party. The new policy is in effect until the end of this year. Justice Minister Mickey Amery’s office says the government plans to introduce legislation this fall and that Albertans should have confidence that their personal information is being protected. ‘Worried UCP is opening the door for voter fraud’: Alberta NDP Both Alberta NDP House Leader Christina Gray and Public Interest Alberta issued statements Friday saying the changes game the system in favour of separatists. “We are worried the UCP is opening the door for voter fraud,” Gray said in a media release. “Parties like ours scrutineering the vote won’t have enough information to know who those voters are. We won’t even know if there were 24 voters claiming the same address.” On Friday afternoon, Gray was critical of what she said were “unprecedented” and “very last-minute” changes. “Political parties like mine need information to be able to scrutinize what’s happening during the referendum to make sure that things are legitimate,” Gray said. “With these changes, we won’t know if 30 new people will list the same house all as their same address because we won’t have access to that information. “This continues a pattern we’ve seen from Danielle Smith and the UCP of helping their separatist friends over and over and over.” Gray linked the late changes to the NDP’s Monday victory in the Calgary-Shaw byelection. “It’s not a surprise we are seeing this unprecedented change right after the UCP saw us succeed in Calgary-Shaw,” she said. “They are making it harder for the referendum to be legitimate after doing everything from 10 referendum questions that weren’t put forward by any citizens, by changing some of the rules around IDs and tabulators to make it harder to vote, and now with this OIC, they’re making it harder to scrutinize.” Public Interest Alberta also issued a reaction to the move. “Never before has a government blocked MLAs and political parties’ legitimate access to electoral data,” said Brad Lafortune, executive director of Public Interest Alberta. “They thought they could quietly pass this order in ‘corruption’ without anyone noticing, gaming the system in favour of separatists, but we are onto her deception and Albertans have had enough.” Justice minister responds: Late Friday afternoon, the justice minister sent the following statement to CTV News. “Albertans must have confidence that their personal information is being protected. “That is why Alberta’s government is adopting a temporary regulation to remove personal and contact information from the list of electors provided to registered parties and MLAs to ensure we are protecting Albertans’ personal information. “We take the privacy and security of Albertans’ information very seriously, and protecting that information remains our top priority. Elections Alberta administers Alberta’s election laws and is responsible for protecting access to the voters list. “Alberta’s government will continue to take the necessary steps including introducing legislative amendments this fall to protect Albertans’ privacy and uphold the integrity of our elections.” With files from The Canadian Press
