The United Conservative Party (UCP) will hold it's first of two Nomination Contests to elect a candidate to run in the 2019 Alberta Municipal Election in the new riding of Airdrie-Cochrane today (October 18).

Four people have let their name stand for the nomination, Peter Guthrie, Morgan Nagel, Mauri Stiff, and Laura Talsma.  The President of the Airdrie-Cochrane Constituency Association, Russell Kossowan says the two meetings will be held over three days.  "Thursday (today) the polling station will be the Golden Rod Hall, and that poll will be open from noon 'til 8:00 pm.  Then on Saturday, it will be at the Cochrane Ranche House and that poll will be open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm."

Kossowan says there are approximately 3,400 people who have joined the UCP in the riding who are eligible to vote.  The weather has Kossowan slightly concerned, although not for the usual reasons in Alberta.

"Thursday's supposed to be nice.  Saturday's supposed to be fantastic for weather, my only concern is what is it going to do for our rural folks.  I think everybody's aware that, across Alberta, the farmers are behind with the harvest.  If the weather is great enough between now and Saturday, are these rural people going to get out and vote.  Chances are if they're out in the field combining and they're under some pretty tight timelines, they may not, which is kind of sad but that's just the reality of it, right."

Kossowan says, depending on the number of voters who turn out, and the number of people they have counting the ballots, they should know who the candidate will be quite quickly.

"I would say within a couple of hours, or two and a half hours, (on Saturday) we should have the results."

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