Overview

• Advance polls opened Friday in Alberta’s Battle River–Crowfoot riding for the Aug. 18 byelection where Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre seeks to return to Parliament
• A record 214 candidates are on the ballot, the majority fielded by the Longest Ballot Committee in protest of Canada’s electoral rules
• For the first time, voters must write a candidate’s name on blank write-in ballots, with Elections Canada pledging to count misspelled names but reject entries listing only a party
• Elections Canada has deployed large-print candidate lists, magnifiers, large-grip pencils and extra poll worker training to assist electors with the new format
• Poilievre has denounced the protest nominations as a “scam” that will confuse voters and impose barriers on those with vision challenges and the elderly