Voters line up to mark their ballots on Monday during the 2025 municipal election. Results are still coming in Wednesday, but half the council has been declared by the News, with insurmountable leads.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
While no official updates to the mayoral vote count were provided Tuesday, a report from the city in the evening offered some clarity into where municipal election races sit.
With an estimated total of 90 per cent of polls reported in the mayoral race, roughly 2,000 more votes are expected to be unveiled today. Linnsie Clark’s lead sat at 749 votes over closest challenger Drew Barnes, 32.4 per cent to 28.2 per cent.
Barnes would need an overwhelming majority of the final 10 per cent of polling in order to pull even, meaning Clark will serve a second term as mayor of Medicine Hat.
In the council race, the city reports an estimated 70% of polling reported, with Yusuf Mohammed (3,119 votes), Ted Clugston (2,809), Stuart Young (2,638) and Chris Hellman (2,334) all declared elected by the News. Cheryl Phaff (1,582) and Bill Cocks (1,537) look extremely safe with their unofficial totals, though not officially declared by press time.
The race for the final two seats have six candidates within reach of getting a spot around the horseshoe. Longtime incumbent Robert Dumanowski (1,378) and Dan Reynish (1,356) held the final two spots entering Wednesday. Reynish is up 20 seats on Kirsten Spek (1,336), 48 ahead of Brian Varga (1,308), 61 ahead of Adam Koch (1,295) and 155 votes ahead of incumbent Alison Van Dyke.
Incumbent Shila Sharps – who filed the original complaint against Clark that led to the Clark’s long discussed and eventually scrapped sanctions – looks to be paying a price for the controversy, sitting 23rd out of the 39 candidates.
Tuesday’s election results tracking began at 10:30 a.m. after four hours of releases Monday evening following ballots closing at 8 p.m. However, as the day drew on, only results for councillors and school trustees trickled in.
With those unofficial results tallied by fives and 10s, the mayoral race was left completely unchanged beyond a final update on election night, coming at 1:55 a.m. Tuesday.
A lack of update regarding the mayoral race drew questions from media and residents, with inquiries from the News left unanswered ahead of a city social media statement saying reporting would stop at the end of the business day. The last update of unofficial results came at 5 p.m., with ballot count percentages provided later to the News.
The city said it would not be making unofficial declarations on any race on Tuesday, though counting reportedly continued until 10 p.m. The city says it will begin reporting results again starting today at 9 a.m.
The biggest wave of results still to come is in the trustee races for bot the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education and the Medicine Hat Public School Division. The city estimates only 60 per cent of the school trustee ballots are represented in the published unofficial totals.
In the Catholic trustee race, Chuck Hellman (750), Kathy Glasgo (678) and Richard Mastel (551) have all been declared elected by the News. Bernard Kinch (408), Patty Jo Folliott (390), Raymond West (374) and Deanna Alford (317) are in the mix for the final two seats.
In the public school race, Patrick Grisonich (2,369), Catherine Wilson (1,685) and Quinn Skelton (1,641) have all been declared elected by the News. Megan Hilgendorf (1,404), Gwendoline Dirk (1,368) and Deborah Forbes (1,258) are in the race for the final two seats.
All results are unofficial and as of 5 p.m. Tuesday.
