Elections Alberta is sending out a warning about a fake website.
Officials said the agency recently identified a website that appears to be trying to represent itself as Elections Alberta. The URL is electionsab.ca and appears designed to mislead by imitating the agency’s legitimate website, elections.ab.ca, and exploit concerns about the recent unauthorized use of the List of Electors in the province.
Officials said the fake site has a list of made-up names, addresses, phone numbers, and fake ‘elector ID’ numbers. Elections Alberta said the data generated is “completely fake” and “not derived from the List of Electors”.
“I believe this disinformation activity is intended to ‘spoof’ Elections Alberta and is an attempt to reduce public confidence in my Office and electoral events in Alberta,” said Chief Electoral Officer, Gordon McClure.
“Disinformation activities of this nature were not included in the newly created ‘Deepfake’ provisions in the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act, and my Office does not have the legislative authority or jurisdiction to act or investigate this site. For these reasons, I have contacted the appropriate enforcement and cyber security agencies and made them aware of the existence of this website. I am also taking steps to attempt to have this website taken down.”
Residents are encouraged to report activity like this by contacting Elections Alberta by phone at 780-427-7191 or by email at info@elections.ab.ca.
