One of Alberta’s prominent separatist leaders is decrying the way Elections Alberta verifies signatures for citizen-led petitions. Last week, the independence petition calling for a binding referendum to leave Canada was verified and deemed successful by Elections Alberta. About 222,000 signatures were verified, despite about 279,000 valid signatures counted. According to data from Elections Alberta, 20.3 per cent of independence petition signatures were thrown out. “There wasn’t a problem with our process, the problem is with Elections Alberta having its thumb on the scale,” Rath said.