Corb Lund questions Elections Alberta's verification process after coal-mining petition rejected
The musician's Water Not Coal petition was ruled a failure after Elections Alberta estimated only 172,000 of 196,000 counted signatures were valid.
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Country musician Corb Lund says he's not giving up after his petition drive to stop new coal mining in Alberta was ruled a failure by Elections Alberta.
Lund delivered more than 207,000 signatures to force Premier Danielle Smith's government to act on concerns over coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Elections Alberta counted 196,000 valid signatures, but statistical sampling led the agency to estimate only 172,000 were verified — falling short of the nearly 178,000 needed.
"We're not going anywhere on this," Lund said Monday. He said his group Water Not Coal may apply for a judicial review in the coming days.
Lund questioned if Elections Alberta followed its own rules, noting he heard from people who received calls from unidentified phone numbers asking for personal information. "If that was me, I'd hang up on them," he said. "We followed every rule, and we've drilled our canvassers to be very fastidious about following all the rules. And they're still messing with us."
Elections Alberta disagreed, saying it follows a rigorous verification process and that signatures were rejected only when phone numbers or email addresses submitted weren't in service — not because people didn't answer calls.
A successful petition would have compelled the UCP government to consider a law banning new coal mining or send the issue to a provincewide referendum. The petition effort was somewhat moot before rejection: Premier Smith said there wasn't enough time to process even a successful petition for it to go on the October 19 referendum ballot, which already has 10 questions.
