With the elections right around the corner, Indigenous citizens of Alberta are faced with barriers regarding voting. Ballots are linked to the municipal elections, but Indigenous reserves are not official municipalities. To cast a vote Indigenous individuals living on a reserve are required to vote by special mail-in ballot or travel to the closest community, which for some individuals can be over an hour drive. This situation creates voter suppression for Indigenous populations living on reserves as their participation in the election is faced with hardships such as transportation, time constraints and inaccessibility. Some Indigenous Albertans have brought this inequity to attention and believe that they should have equal opportunities when it comes to voting as the rest of Albertan citizens' because these decisions will impact their lives as well. With 51 First Nations and 8 Métis reserves, this equates to approximately 77,000 voters being suppressed.

To put this into perspective in Medicine Hats 2017 municipal election, out of 55,000 eligible voters, only 17,308 cast a ballot equating to a 34.6% turnout. It is important to also keep in mind that this was with polling stations being accessible within a less than ten minute drive for many the majority, yet there was still a low turnout rate. Now imagine how much lower it would be if that drive was somewhere near an hour, I assume that these numbers would decrease dramatically. Even though Indigenous peoples living on reserves are not part of a municipality, they feel they will be directly affected by these decisions and thus, need the options to vote on plebiscite and referendums (a direct vote by the electorate).

Do with this information as you please, but as King would remind us stories "aren't just entertainment" (p.92). Now that you know this information, what will you do with it?

To read more on voter suppression in regards to Indigenous reserves, click here.