Advance ballots for Alberta's 10-question referendum open on Oct. 13, with the province-wide polling day following six days afterward on Oct. 19. Advance voting in the provincial election is set to span five days, running from Oct. 13 through to Oct. 17, according to Elections Alberta.

Most polling places are scheduled to accept voters between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m., though a handful of locations may operate on reduced timetables. Any Alberta resident holding Canadian citizenship and aged 18 or older may bring their ballot to any advance voting location that falls within their own electoral division. Voters casting ballots in the referendum are required to do so at the polling location tied to their home address.

Two ways to track down a polling place are available to residents: Elections Alberta's online Where to Vote tool and the Where to Vote card delivered by mail.

Nine of the ten referendum questions deal with immigration and constitutional matters, while the tenth puts to voters whether Alberta should stay within Canada or instead trigger the legal steps needed to hold a binding provincial vote on separation.

A total of 658,000-plus special ballot applications — all submitted ahead of the Sept. 25 cutoff — had been worked through by Elections Alberta, which wrapped up that processing effort on Oct. 1. Of the 652,000-plus applications processed, ballots were dispatched by post to those whose requests cleared review, while just under 5,700 fell at the first hurdle — turned away on grounds ranging from ineligibility and duplicate submissions to problems with addresses or other details provided.

Applications for special ballots ahead of this year's referendum totalled more than ten times the approximately 60,000 lodged during the 2023 provincial election. A decision by Elections Alberta in early September pushed the mail-ballot application deadline forward by two weeks, from October 9 to September 25, with the agency stating that the earlier cutoff would allow voters additional time to receive, fill out, and return their ballots through the post.

Elections Alberta pointed to three factors behind the volume of special ballot applications: the removal of any requirement for applicants to state a reason, the discontinuation of the "vote anywhere" option, and a higher number of questions on the ballot — adding, in a formal statement, that voters appeared to want additional time to read through and weigh their choices before marking their selections.

Guidance documents aimed at both voters and employers were put out by a number of organisations in the lead-up to the referendum. The United Steelworkers union has taken a position in favour of Alberta remaining within Canada, and against all nine of the other referendum questions on the ballot. Provincial priorities outlined by the union span health care delivery, the cost of living, employment, and the long-term welfare of wage-earning households.

ActionDignity, a Calgary-based non-profit focused on equity, has put out a call for members of ethnocultural, racialized, and other communities to look over the ballot questions and cast their votes. A resource released by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce walks through all ten ballot questions, laying out what each outcome could mean in practice — from whether a favourable vote would trigger new legislation to whether constitutional amendments might be needed. Research into how a referendum might reshape investment flows, business confidence, and broader economic growth has been assembled by the Alberta Chambers of Commerce as part of a wide-ranging analysis of the vote's potential consequences.