Counting Votes - Hand Count Method

On Election Day (Monday October 20) after the polls close at 8 p.m., and all electors present at the voting station have cast their ballots, election workers will begin counting the votes cast at their assigned Voting Station.

On Election night at 8 p.m., Special Ballots and votes cast on Advance Voting Days are counted at the local Elections Office as determined by the Returning Officer.

Vote Counting Method

Election workers are hired specifically for counting ballots and the counting process is done in front of the Voting Station Ballot Count Supervisor. Candidates can watch the ballot counting process or designate a scrutineer to attend the Voting Station to view the counting process.

Once election workers have finished counting all the ballots, the designated Voting Station Ballot Count Supervisor will notify the Returning Officer of the results for each race – Mayor, Councillor, School Trustee for Parkland School Division and School Trustee for Evergreen Catholic School Division.

The ballots and other election documents are then sealed in the ballot box and delivered to the Returning Officer.

Results

In previous elections, the City used vote tabulators to count each ballot and generate election results. Vote tabulators generated results in less than 30 minutes following the close of the voting stations.

With recent changes to the Local Alberta Elections Act, municipalities are only permitted to generate results using the traditional hand count method. This method is expected to take several hours as it is done by real people in real time. Human error can occur and therefore a validation process will take place where each ballot will be counted twice to ensure accuracy of results.

Unofficial Election Results are not expected to be made public until Tuesday October 21. Hand counting takes a significant amount of time, and it is expected that election workers will be counting ballots into the early morning hours of October 21.

Official Results will be posted on the City’s website at noon on Friday October 24.

We thank candidates and members of the public for their patience during the ballot counting process. Hand counting is a labour-intensive process, that requires validation to mitigate human error. The City is committed to counting the ballots as efficiently as possible.