EDMONTON - Alberta's Opposition Liberals say there were widespread voting irregularities in the recent provincial election and they want the auditor general to prepare a special report.

Only half the people who showed up at some polls were on the voters list, meaning many left without casting ballots and others weren't even allowed to vote, Liberal leader Kevin Taft said Monday.

Taft said he's not trying to overturn the election results, but wants any problems fixed before the next vote.

"Voting problems like this bring the whole electoral system into disrepute," said Taft. "This feeds public cynicism and apathy while contributing to low voter turnout."

The March 3 election drew the lowest turnout in Alberta history at 41 per cent of eligible voters. But the outcome was decisive as the Progressive Conservatives won 72 of 83 seats.

The Liberals have presented the auditor general with a thick binder filled with anecdotal evidence of alleged voting irregularities from almost every riding in Alberta.

Stacy Maurier, a Liberal election volunteer, said she was shocked by some of the things she saw, including a taxi driver voting even though the man later admitted he didn't live in the riding.

"I find that really troubling," Maurier told reporters. "Elections Alberta later said there was nothing they could do about that because the man claimed he lived in the riding."

Susan Peacock, who trains election scrutineers for the Liberals, said she was surprised by the number of voting problems, including incomplete elections lists. In some cases people who had voted in several elections simply disappeared from the list of eligible voters, she said.

"In one case, the husband was on the election list, the wife was not," said Peacock.

"I don't know how many people had to be turned away from the Anthony Henday polling station because there were hundreds of people waiting in line after the time when they were supposed to be closing the doors."

Peacock blamed a lot of the problems on poor training of the election officers. But there was also an obvious political taint connected with some of the problems, she said.

"It was silliness," she said. "A large sample ballot was posted at the advance poll with the Tory member's name with an 'X' beside it and the polling clerks did nothing."

Most of the voting problems were related to an out-of-date voters list, said Lori McKee-Jeske, deputy chief electoral officer. The province was due for a new voters list when the election was called, McKee-Jeske said.

"We were not able to do as much enumerating as we had hoped," she said. "Instead, we did a target enumeration during the election period and we tried to focus on areas of high growth."

Taft also wants the auditor general to decide whether it was appropriate that many returning officers had apparent ties to the Conservative party. He used a football analogy to describe the situation.

"It would be like going to an Edmonton Eskimos game and finding that half the referees were part of the Calgary Stampeders organization," he said. "Not only must the system be fair, it must be seen to be fair."

The auditor general was not immediately available to comment on the Liberal request for a special review.

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