recent poll commissioned by CBC News showing that support for Option 2 appears to be softening<\/a>.<\/p>\nSylvestre, who said he does not give much weight to polls, told CBC News that he will accept the outcome of the vote “for what it is,” but added it would not be the end of the line for supporters, regardless of the result. <\/p>\n
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Supporters gathered outside a Bonnyville gas station to hold a “Stop N Talk.” They invite members of the public to talk to them about why they believe in separation. (Kory Siegers\/CBC)<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re gonna quit if we don\u2019t like them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sylvestre said he wouldn\u2019t be surprised if support for a binding referendum on separation received 40 to 65 per cent of the vote, adding that he has done 200 town halls and has seen the support for independence first hand.<\/p>\n
When asked if there is a percentage of the vote that might give him pause and consider putting the issue to bed, Sylvestre said it would take a severe thumping for him to change his mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this vote is really skewered one way or the other, especially against us, if I really believed that we got 10 or 12 per cent of the vote, you know what, that\u2019ll change my opinion on things. No doubt about it. Whether the movement will die or not, that\u2019s not my responsibility to say because \u2026 I can\u2019t speak for every Albertan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When asked what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith plans to do if the fight for secession continues, the premier’s press secretary Sam Blackett did not get into specifics.<\/p>\n
“The premier looks forward to seeing the direction Albertans give us on October 19th and will respect and honour the results. We expect all Albertans to do the same,” Blackett said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“We hope to get a strong mandate from Albertans on our other nine questions and for remaining in Canada, so that we can continue our work to build a stronger Alberta within a united Canada.”<\/p>\n
Mail-in ballots<\/p>\n
Elections Alberta has said that over 650,000 mail-in ballots had been sent out, 11 times the number requested in the 2023 provincial election.<\/p>\n
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Albertans will vote on 10 questions in a referendum Oct. 19, including whether they support the province remaining in Confederation, or they support the province beginning the legal process to have a second, binding referendum on separation. (Janet French\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Sylvestre indicated that he distrusts mail-in ballots and said if those ballots favour staying in Canada, people will think the fix is in.<\/p>\n
But when asked if he would trust mail-in ballots that are in favour of the option for an eventual vote, Sylvestre said he would.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have nothing to do with the process, OK? We have nothing to do with where they go. We have nothing to do with basic collecting them when they get back. We have scrutineers in place and we have a lot of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHistorically the cheat has always gone the other way with the left. Now, I don\u2019t know, I\u2019ve said this from the very start, let\u2019s just everybody show up to the poll, let\u2019s vote in person.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Elections Alberta, if a mail-in ballot does not contain copies of accepted ID or declaration, it cannot be accepted. The agency will attempt to contact the voter for these documents but if they are not received, the ballot will be rejected.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson also said that generally fraudulent voting is \u201ca very rare thing,\u201d adding there have been three cases where letters of reprimand were issued in the past 10 years or more for cases of ineligible voters attempting to vote.<\/p>\n
Hear more on the latest West of Centre podcast:<\/p>\n
MORE TOP STORIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-926748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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