The race for the leadership of the governing Progressive Conservative party has ended, and it is up to party members to choose the party’s next leader, and the province’s next premier.

Over the summer, candidates Ric McIver, Thomas Lukaszuk and Jim Prentice have been busy on the campaign trail, trying to boost membership for the party and support for their leadership bids.

Starting at 6 a.m. Friday, members could begin casting their ballots through phone or online voting, or by voting in person at polling stations located throughout the province.

Hours after polls opened, officials at the party said their PIN help phone line had become overloaded, telling members to try again at about noon.

For a number of members, like Kristen Toms, their attempts to vote resulted in frustration.

“It’s a very unusual system, I’ve never seen a system or a postal code validation that had you just pull the numbers,” Toms said.

Many frustrated members turned to social media to vent, some calling it a ‘hot mess’, others saying the system failed.

“This has turned from a gong show into side show; this is the beginning of a total new phase of this race,” Bob Murray with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy said. “Is the result that we’re going to see by tomorrow evening going to be brought into question?”

In Calgary, at the party’s headquarters, staff dealt with a steady stream of inquiries and calls for assistance with the new system.

“There is frustration in accessing either the help line or the voting system itself, but once you are in, it’s working seamlessly,” Kelley Charlebois, a PC Party spokesperson, said.

As for Toms, she said she hung in there and successfully voted, but she said she’s not sure of the number of people who might have the patience to deal with the system.

“People who are in a rush and want to get in and get it done will probably give up early,” Toms said.

Party officials said they were working hard to ensure any hiccups are fixed, maintaining the help line was overloaded because of a surge Friday morning.

Voting will end at 6 p.m. Saturday.

If none of the canddiates receive more than 50 percent of the vote Saturday, a second ballot will be held - that vote is scheduled to end September 20.

With files from Serena Mah