🚨Last night we received a letter from Elections Alberta chief electoral officer, Gordon McClure. The letter advised us that voting scrutineers for the referendum were suddenly going to be restricted and limited. Elections Alberta has ordered "that Third Party Advertiser Scrutineers will not be authorized to observe or perform scrutineer duties at voting places or counting places during the referendum." The only voting and ballot counting scrutineers that appear to now be permitted for the October 19th Alberta referendum are scrutineers appointed by the NDP and UCP parties, both of which currently have political leaders opposing option 2 on question 10! Democracy requires transparency. Democracy requires accountability. Democracy shouldn’t operate in the shadows. Democratic oversight shouldn’t be limited to one side. Election logistics is the primary role of a chief electoral officer. If the logistics are too difficult for this chief electoral officer, maybe it’s time to find another. This letter was sent to us at 5:40 pm on a Friday night going into a long weekend. Given that all the registered third-party advertisers received this notice after business hours on a Friday night going into a long weekend, there’s nothing we can say or do until Tuesday morning. Reducing and limiting democratic transparency and elections scrutineering four business days before the referendum. That bureaucratic and political communications strategy says a lot. Albertans deserve a fair and open vote, with transparency and accountability.