Edmonton Elections says multiple factors have caused voting and counting delays in Edmonton’s municipal election.
Labour shortages, power outages and technology issues are to blame, the city’s election agency said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.
Polls were set to close at 8 p.m. MT Monday, however long lines meant some voting locations remained open to accommodate those waiting to cast their ballots.
First results began emerging just before 10:30 p.m. with counting paused at 1 a.m.
Counting resumed at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning to decide Edmonton’s new mayor and councillors after voting stretched for two hours past its deadline.
In an emailed statement, Edmonton Elections said it released 30 per cent of all votes last night and that counting was well underway Tuesday morning at the Edmonton Expo Centre.
“On election night in Edmonton, ballots were counted at individual voting stations for all races … At the count centre, count workers counted advance votes and special ballots, focusing first on advance votes,” Brent Wittmeier, a city spokesperson said in the statement.
“Workers at the count centre are now counting ballots that were not counted at voting stations on election night.”
Unofficial results will be available online as ballots are counted and verified by the returning officer. Edmonton Elections told media that it aims to release preliminary results today.
As of 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, Edmonton was reporting unofficial results for 110 of 236 polls for mayor with Andrew Knack at 41,124 votes and Tim Cartmell at 30,670 votes. In all, 13 people were running for mayor in the 2025 election.
Edmonton Elections pegged unofficial voter turnout results at 30.27 per cent, with 205,758 of 679,830 eligible voters coming out.
It’s the lowest voter turnout since 2007, when Stephen Mandel was re-elected mayor with a 27.24 per cent turnout.
The 2021 civic election in Edmonton saw a record number of 236,000 voters head to the polls, according to a report by Elections Edmonton.
Some voters reported experiencing lengthy wait times to be able to cast their ballots in Edmonton on Monday. Edmonton Elections told CBC News in an email that because the process for voting was different this year, it could impact the time it would take to vote.
Edmonton voter, Susan Babcock, said it’s too bad cities aren’t allowed to use a proven technology to automatically count votes.
“There was no reason to move to paper ballots,” she said in an interview Tuesday.
“I think it’s really too bad that a very small number of people raised fears about very, very infrequent and minor problems with automated ballot counting.”
Edmonton Votes special on election night
Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams told CBC News in a statement Monday that municipalities have known about new election rules since the spring of 2024, which he said was “ample” time to get a plan together.
“If a municipality’s election authority was unable to come up with an effective plan, it is up to the local authority to explain to voters and candidates why long waits have developed,” his statement read, in part.
