This is your democracy

Our GOTV work has to be impartial, so we can't speak for everything in these resources, but here are some links to get you started at understanding the different perspectives involved:

• Info videos: Student Voting, How to Vote, Voter Qualifications, Register to Vote (Elections Alberta)
• "Albertans are voting on Oct. 19. Here’s the simple version of what you need to know." (CBC)
• "Ten Questions: Four of Them Count" (Alberta Taxpayers Federation)
• "Your guide to the 2026 referendum" (Our Alberta Vote)
• "The 2026 Alberta Referendum: The facts about all 10 questions" (Dignity Forum)
• "Stand Up for a Stronger Alberta: Your Guide to the 2026 Referendum" (Government of Alberta)
• "The Muttart Foundation’s Response to the Immigration Questions Included as part of the October 19th 2026, Provincial Referendum" (The Muttart Foundation)
• "Before you vote, read this" (Before You Vote)
• "Why are Albertans so grumpy? It's about falling behind economically" (Charles St. Arnaud, Servus Credit Union)
• "The economic and fiscal implications of Alberta separation" (University of Calgary School of Public Policy independent analysis for the Government of Alberta)
• "The Alberta Transition Plan" (Alberta Transition Council)
• "Alberta in Confederation" (Canada West Foundation)
• "AFN Emergency Resolution Opposes Alberta Separation" (Assembly of First Nations, Confederacy of Treaty No. 6 First Nations)
• "Referendum Poll 2026" (Janet Brown Opinion Research with CBC Alberta)
• "October 19 Alberta Referendum Questions in Aphasia-Friendly Language" (CHAT Society)
• "Compendium of Referendum Sources" (Peter Lougheed School of Politics and Democracy)

Trans Action Alberta recommends: "If your ballot is impacted, contact Elections Alberta Special Ballot Support Line at 1.877.672.1365 or visit your local Elections Alberta Office."

Because of Alberta's election financing laws, we can only run a large Get Out The Vote campaign (i.e. spending more than $1000) if we don't lead students to vote one way or the other, or if we go through the full Referendum Third-Party Advertiser process.

After getting legal advice, we've focused on funding a large GOTV campaign instead, and we're partnering with others who are doing voter turnout work, like New Majority and Apathy is Boring.

These questions have the potential to impact everyone in Alberta — us, our friends, and our communities. Our goal is to get as many students aware of the referendum as possible, get as many students to vote as we can, and there's still a lot of work to do.

For most GOTV campaigns, we hire a single coordinator or bring in a partner. This time, we've hired two outstanding coordinators AND brought in support from New Majority, a nonpartisan nonprofit that works to boost voter turnout. We're partnering or coordinating with groups across the campus community to help inform students, and recruiting as many volunteers as possible.

We're also using the Perks platform to survey thousands of students about the referendum questions, and to raise awareness of paid opportunities with Elections Alberta.

For any questions about the October 2nd 'What Happens Next' panel in partnership with CBC, you can contact the UASU's Vice President (External), Angelina Raina. Don't try asking our GOTV Coordinators and volunteers; they aren't connected with the event and won't have the answers to your questions.

In the months leading up to the 'What Happens Next?' panel, the UASU explored many possible combinations of speakers, looking at factors like our legal limits, student polling, safety and security considerations, availability, input from our partners, and especially value to students.

The UASU supports and cares about international students. Our VP (External) is working to find out for sure if their health care access would be directly affected by the referendum vote. So far, it sounds like those questions actually focus on Temporary Foreign Workers and K-12 students, and were not designed with post-secondary international students in mind. But there's a lot of confusion around this and we're hoping more clarity is available soon.

We've also been talking with student health care providers and examining how international students' coverage is handled in other provinces, to make sure international students continue to have health care access no matter what.

Yes, absolutely! Applications are now open for BOTH undergraduate and graduate students.

AASUA (academic staff), NASA (non-academic staff), PDFA (postdocs), and the GSA (graduate students) put out a joint op-ed in the Edmonton Journal on September 3rd. Taking a strong stand on several referendum questions, the op-ed is an important part of our community dialogue.

To stay in compliance with Alberta's election financing laws, the UASU couldn't sign this op-ed at the same time as spending over $1000 on our GOTV campaign, not without going through a complex third-party advertiser registration and compliance process.

Within our legal limits, though, the UASU can and does support their conclusion: "It is imperative that all eligible voters make their voices heard on Oct. 19. What’s at stake isn’t abstract."

A lot of official materials still list October 9th as the deadline. (You might see our GOTV team busily crossing things out on flyers and booklets we printed!) But because Elections Alberta has already received over half a million special ballot applications, they had to change the deadline to September 25th.

That's changed. Vote, vote, vote.

Not anymore, sorry. Bring your ID.

This year, Elections Alberta is in SUB for advance polls but not on election day. Find your voting locations here.

Yes, Alberta requires manual counting (hand counting) for ballots in provincial elections, by-elections and plebiscites. The change prohibiting electronic voting equipment took effect upon proclamation of the Election Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (formerly Bill 54) on July 4, 2025. The Government of Alberta announced that the changes were done to protect election integrity.