It's election day in Alberta on May 29, 2023, and it's expected to be a tight race between the Alberta NDP and the United Conservative Party. (Photo Courtesy Brendan Miller)

By Chris Brown

It’s election day in Alberta

May 29, 2023 | 10:09 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – After a four-week campaign, election day has arrived in Alberta.

The polls are open until 8 p.m. Voters should have received a voter card in the mail with instructions on where to vote. If not, you can check the Elections Alberta website.

The are three candidates running in the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding. Gwendoline Dirk is representing the Alberta NDP, Barry Morishita is representing the Alberta Party and Danielle Smith is representing the UCP. Morishita and Smith are both leaders of their parties.

Voters in Cypress-Medicine Hat have four names to choose from. Cody Ray Both is running for the Independence Party of Alberta, Cathy Hogg for the Alberta NDP, Matt Orr the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition and Justin Wright the UCP.

Profiles of most of the candidates can be found on our Alberta Votes 2023 page. Orr did not submit answers to our questionnaire.

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The three candidates for Brooks-Medicine Hat also ran in last fall’s byelection that saw Smith win a seat in the legislature a month after winning her party’s leadership. She won 54.5 per cent of the vote to Dirk’s 26.7 per cent. Morishita won 16.5 per cent of the vote.

The byelection was needed when UCP MLA Michaela Frey stepped down after Smith’s leadership win. She won nearly 70 per cent of the vote in 2019’s election.

With Drew Barnes deciding not to run for re-election, Cypress-Medicine Hat will have a new representative for the first time since 2012.

Barnes was elected as a Wildrose member in 2012 and 2015 and a UCP member in 2019. He has sat as an Independent for the past two years after being kicked out of the UCP caucus by then-leader and premier Jason Kenney.

Advance voting

Elections Alberta has released unofficial voter turnout numbers for advance voting, held from May 23-27.

“For the second election in a row we have seen record-breaking voter turnout during advance voting days,” said Glen Resler, chief electoral officer for Elections Alberta. “In 2019, we saw 700,476 ballots cast during the five days of advance voting, this year we have welcomed 758,550 to the polls so far.”

There were 330 advance voting locations that offered the Vote Anywhere Service, giving electors the ability to vote at any advance voting location in the province. Of the 758,550 people who have voted since May 23, officials note 21.9 per cent voted outside of their electoral division.

–With files from rdnewsNOW