City election officials are compiling a report on this past election to be presented to council for consideration. Voters wait in line on election day at the Medicine Hat News--NEWS FILE PHOTO
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
One of the first items new councillors and Mayor Linnsie Clark will receive for consideration will be a report detailing issues officials and workers experienced during the election which led to long lines at polling stations and even longer delays counting and reporting votes.
Despite some hiccups, Returning Officer Tarolyn Aaserud commended more than 18,000 Hatters who showed up to the polls to cast ballots last Monday, as well as 380 municipal workers who worked several hours of overtime to ensure each ballot was counted accurately.
“I really want to thank everyone for voting and everyone for their patience,” said Aaserud.
That voter patience was evident across the province as several media outlets reported long lines and delayed election results as municipalities pivoted to a hand-counting system after more than 25 years of using electronic vote tabulators.
The change came when the UCP passed its municipal elections bill last summer banning the use of electronic voting machines.
In Medicine Hat, the city adopted a Kangaroo Board method of hand counting using aligned graph paper and a ruler.
This method was selected due to the record number of council candidates (39), six mayoral candidates and several school board candidates who ran in this election.
“Democracy is important,” said Aaserud. “We needed to make sure everyone was on their A game, it is complex, particularly the councillor one, because there’s 39 candidates.”
However, even with full teams working around the clock, results slowly trickled in on the Tuesday and Wednesday following the election, with all votes officially counted more than 48 hours after Monday’s voting concluded.
“They honestly did their level best,” explained Aaserud. “Hopefully the citizens of Medicine Hat feel that they were able to participate in their democratic right.”
Although details on the local election election process will not become public until after they are presented to council in the report, Aaserud cited connectivity issues with the internet, as well as a significant reduction in polling stations as a factor to the lineups, with some voters reporting over an hour’s wait.
The city budgeted $465,000 for the municipal election, comparable to its budget in 2021. Subsequently, with rising costs associated with changes to the counting process, the city reduced the number of polling stations by half from 20 in 2021 to 10 in 2025.
“I am very mindful of taxpayer dollars, very mindful of that. So we want to ensure that everyone has the democratic right to vote, but make sure that we do it in a manner that it’s effective and efficient,” said Aaserud, who said the 10 locations were chosen because of their large parking lots and nearby transit access.
However, some polling stations did not provide easy WiFi access.
“Sometimes with cell service, and you’re in buildings that are made with bricks and steel, there’s connectivity issues,” said Aaserud.
The city uses a computer system to tally registered voters when they arrive on election day, however these computers relied on a wireless connection to function properly. This led to delays at polling stations Monday morning.
In this election, Alberta voters also had to fill out a Form 13 Elector Register and election staff had to look after both the new forms as well as the elector register.
Flipping the coin, election staff say this year advance polling stations were very successful, reporting 39 per cent of the 18,265 voters took advantage of the six-days of polling leading up to the election.
And to ensure all voters, regardless of ability, were able to vote, four special teams of election workers visited all 13 stations (including long-term care homes) to assist voters.
“They are all caring people who want to ensure that all residents of the city have the ability to exercise their democratic right.”
City staff are evaluating the entire election process and compiling a report to be presented to council for consideration once complete.
“We work with that legislation and we do our level best every day,” said Aaserud. “When you make changes, there perhaps are going to be some bumps along the road, but it is my hope that municipalities in the entirety of the province work with Municipal Affairs so if changes need to happen, then they happen.”
The hope is council can use the report to open a dialogue with other municipalities and the province on the voting process moving forward.
In council chambers new name tags have been donned for the incoming council, which will be officially sworn into new roles during a ceremony at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 3. The ceremony will be followed by an organizational meeting where Mayor Linnsie Clark will confirm council appointments to each of the standing committees.
