October election changes cost municipalities millions, longer return times
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The October 20 municipal election will bring new triple ballots, big bucks for hand-counting, and potentially days instead of minutes for election returns.
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Spawned by the UCP government's Bill 20, electoral changes like the banning of tabulators will cost Edmonton taxpayers $4.8 million more in 2025.
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Voters around the province will face new registration procedures, three ballot papers per voter instead of one — and days, in some cases, instead of minutes to get election results.
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'Better for democracy'
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In September, Premier Danielle Smith justified the mandate banning tabulating machines, saying that electronic vote tabulators have failed to produce fast results and public confidence.
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Municipal affairs Minister Dan Williams said the move is about security.
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'Requiring all ballots to be counted by hand will ensure that all Albertans can trust the methods and results of their local elections, which is better for democracy,' Williams said in a written statement to Postmedia.
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'The time and cost to manually count ballots is outweighed by the increased confidence in election results,' he said.
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Williams said the majority of municipalities across the province already hand count ballots for their elections, the federal government does, and the province will soon be hand counting ballots, too.
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But Sherwood Park MLA Kyle Kasawski, the Official Opposition NDP shadow minister for municipal affairs, said vote tabulators have been cost savers for municipalities. 'They've allowed them to get more ballots counted faster and get the results out after municipal elections,' Kasawski said.
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'What we've seen here with with the UCP is, I feel, like they're trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist and is just trying to make a small fringe group of their party feel better when, writ large, there's been no concerns about the results of municipal elections.'
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'This time, if you're voting for a mayoral candidate, you're voting for a councillor candidate, and you're eligible to vote for a trustee in a school board, each of those races is going to be on a separate piece of paper,' said Aileen Giesbrecht, the returning officer for Edmonton Elections.
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