New rules have contributed to long wait times at polling stations and ballot counts across Alberta.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Voters in cities and towns across Alberta faced hours-long delays and in some places could be waiting days for results in the first municipal elections since the provincial government banned electronic counting and imposed new voter ID requirements.
The elections on Monday, which ushered in new mayors in Calgary and Edmonton, were also the first time political parties were permitted in campaigns for mayors and councillors in the province’s two largest cities, although most of the winners were Independents.
Premier Danielle Smith’s government announced changes last year to ban electronic tabulating machines in both the provincial and municipal elections, and to require local elections officials to check a “permanent electors register” that confirmed individuals’ eligibility to vote. Ms. Smith has defended the changes as necessary to ensure fair elections and prevent voter fraud.
Voters complained of hours-long waits at polling stations, where lines snaked around public schools and inside gymnasiums. Political observers say much of the administrative stress was owing to a new elector registration process that required poll workers to collect voters’ information and have them sign a form confirming their eligibility.
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Alberta’s Municipal Affairs Minister, Dan Williams, put the blame on local election officials, who he said had ample time to prepare for the added steps of hand-counting results and keeping a permanent electors register.
“They knew the rules over a year out. We prepared them with information to that end and it’s up to the municipality to execute it,” Mr. Williams said in an interview.
In the end, voters in Calgary chose a new mayor in Jeromy Farkas, a former councillor who attempted to reshape himself from a conservative firebrand into a centrist candidate, unseating incumbent mayor Jyoti Gondek. Ms. Gondek, Calgary’s first female mayor, finished in a distant third.
Mr. Farkas led Sonya Sharp, a city councillor with the conservative-leaning Communities First party, by fewer than 600 votes. Ms. Sharp said she would be requesting a recount.
In Edmonton, city councillor Andrew Knack claimed victory as the city’s next mayor, though about 40 per cent of votes had yet to be tallied. The second-place candidate, Tim Cartmell, conceded defeat in a letter sent out Tuesday afternoon.
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Ms. Smith said in a social-media post that she looks forward to working with the two mayors.
Mr. Williams, the Municipal Affairs Minister, said the government will soon conduct a routine autopsy of this week’s civic elections. The decision to stop using electronic tabulators was intended to improve confidence in election results, he said.
Voting infractions are rare in Alberta. Earlier this year, one person was reprimanded by Elections Alberta for voting despite being ineligible – an infraction committed by two others in 2023 and 2024. In 2021, a man was found to have voted twice in the same election.
“It’s about public confidence in the process that elects our municipal leaders. This is about a fundamental confidence in the rule of law and in democracy,” Mr. Williams said.
Edmonton Elections, in a statement, wrote that labour shortages, power outages and technical issues contributed to waiting times at polls and how quickly votes were reported.
Elections Calgary did not respond to a request for comment.
Canadian federal elections also use paper ballots and are counted by hand.
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Travis McLeod, a flight attendant from Calgary, waited 2½ hours to vote on Monday. Mr. McLeod arrived at St. Jude School at 6:30 p.m. – just 90 minutes after touching down on a flight from Rome – and left at 9 p.m. He said there were five tables with election workers at the gymnasium and estimated 150 people were in line when he arrived. It took about five minutes to process him at the table before he could vote, he said.
“It just seems a bit archaic,” Mr. McLeod said.
Voter turnout was down in Alberta’s two largest cities, though the causes have not been determined.
In Calgary, more than 348,000 people cast a ballot for mayor, down from the 390,000 people who voted in the 2021 civic election. Over that period, however, Calgary’s population has grown by more than 400,000 and appears to be on track to soon reaching a population of two million, according to latest estimates.
About 30 per cent of eligible voters in Edmonton turned out, down from 37 per cent in 2021.
“I think the thing that’s quite clear, at least anecdotally ... is that the cost of voting went up as a consequence of these changes,” said Jack Lucas, a political science professor at the University of Calgary.
“All of these different pieces seem to add up to something that was particularly cumbersome.”
Ward elections in Calgary and Edmonton were still being counted as of late Tuesday afternoon.
In smaller municipalities, voters may not find out results until as late as Friday. In Red Deer, Alberta’s third-largest municipality, its returning officer said vote-counting shifts will be happening throughout the week with the commitment that results would arrive by Friday at noon.
With a report from The Canadian Press