The fall of 2025 might test Edmonton voters’ patience as we await election results that could stretch well into the following day or even week, according to city officials. This marks a significant departure from the swift tallies we’ve grown accustomed to in recent elections.
I spoke with Carol Devlin, Edmonton’s returning officer, who confirmed the provincial government’s recent ban on electronic vote tabulators will dramatically slow the counting process next October.
“In 2021, we had preliminary results by 11 p.m. on election night,” Devlin explained during our interview at City Hall. “Without tabulators, we’re looking at potentially not having results until the following afternoon at the earliest.”
The change stems from the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act passed in April, which prohibits the use of the electronic counting machines that Edmonton and Calgary have relied on for decades. These machines scan paper ballots and tally votes quickly, but they’ve become a flashpoint in debates about election security.
While visiting the elections warehouse where the now-banned tabulators sit unused, I noticed the irony. These machines – which have served Edmonton reliably since the 1990s – have never experienced a verified security breach in our city.
“We always had paper ballots as backup,” Devlin noted, showing me the rows of sealed ballot boxes from previous elections. “The tabulators simply made counting more efficient.”
The ripple effects extend beyond just waiting longer for results. City Councillor Anne Thompson told me she worries about election worker recruitment and retention.
“We’re asking people to stay until 2 or 3 a.m. counting ballots by hand,” Thompson said. “That’s a big commitment, especially for seniors who make up a significant portion of our election workers.”
The Elections Edmonton office estimates they’ll need to hire at least 30% more workers than in previous elections to handle the manual counting load. This comes with an additional price tag of approximately $850,000 for Edmonton taxpayers, according to preliminary budget estimates provided to me.
Standing in line at The Carrot Community Coffee House on Alberta Avenue yesterday morning, I overheard several patrons discussing the upcoming changes. The mixed reactions mirror what polling from the Edmonton Community Foundation suggests – about 48% of residents prefer hand counting for “transparency reasons,” while 52% would rather keep the faster electronic system.
“I don’t mind waiting a bit longer if it means more people trust the results,” said Michael Renwick, a local business owner I chatted with as we waited for our coffees. “But it does seem like we’re solving a problem that didn’t exist.”
Local democracy expert Dr. Samantha Liu from MacEwan University sees implications beyond just slower results.
“There’s a genuine concern about accuracy when you introduce more human handling into the process,” Liu explained during our phone conversation. “Hand counting actually increases the chance of errors compared to machine counting, contrary to what many people believe.”
Liu points to studies from Elections Canada showing hand-counted ballots typically have an error rate between 0.5% and 2%, while machine counting errors occur in less than 0.1% of ballots.
For voters, the practical impact means adjusting expectations. The instant gratification of watching results roll in during evening news broadcasts will likely be replaced by a day or more of waiting.
Devlin’s team is already planning an education campaign to prepare voters. “We want to set realistic expectations about when results will be available,” she said. “The most important message is that accuracy matters more than speed.”
As I left City Hall, watching the preparations already underway for an election still 17 months away, I couldn’t help but reflect on how this change represents something larger than just a technical adjustment. It’s a reminder that even our
