Waiting 3 Days for Election Results

Last week was filled with tariff talk, a corruption controversy in Alberta's health care system and striking support staff workers still on the picket lines fighting for a decent wage from the Edmonton and Sturgeon School Boards.

Most people, and even the news media don't understand we won't be getting results on election night, or the next day and maybe not the day after that either, all because of some bizarre decision-making by the provincial government.

Going Old School

I feel like someone standing on a shoreline and watching a big ship headed towards an even bigger iceberg. I can see what’s about to happen, along with a few others beside me, but most others can’t, or perhaps haven’t realized what’s about to happen.

On October 20, when municipal elections are held across Alberta, don’t expect results on election night. As a matter of fact, we might not get unofficial results for three days and final results for four days.

I’m not kidding.

The Alberta government’s Bill 20 bans the use of tabulators to count the votes electronically. Instead, every ballot will have to be counted by hand. Just like the old days – the real old days.

In preparing for a recent media training session with a municipality, I did some research and found an online article about this October’s election in Red Deer. City Council there was told it will likely take until Thursday to get unofficial results. Election Day is a Monday.

As a result, you could vote just after the polls open on Monday and not find out who won until Thursday afternoon.

Red Deer has used tabulators to count votes since 1992 and in that 33-year period, there has never been an issue with the accuracy or validity of election results. Despite that, it will cost Red Deer two to three times more to conduct the election because of salaries paid to people to count the votes. That is, if enough people can be found.

The same game will be played out in many of Alberta’s 341-municipalities. Several are now gearing up for not being able to use voting tabulators. School boards are affected too.

It’s so backward I wonder if tablets will be used – stone tablets.

In the vast majority of cases, municipalities will have to pay more to get the same results, but those results won’t be released nearly as quickly as before. They also won’t be more accurate.

Progress.

Counting Every Ballot by Hand

We’ve actually already had one election under the new rules of Bill 20. In late January, a bye-election was held in two wards in Calgary to elect two new members to the Board of Trustees for the Calgary Catholic School Division. Those ballots had to be counted by hand. Results didn’t take that long, because only around 1,500 people voted in the two wards.

What happens though in a City with a population of 100,000 holding an election for a Mayor, Councillors and two sets of school board trustees? That’s where the problem emerges, especially for cities that don’t use a ward system. Let’s say there are five candidates for Mayor, 50-for City Councillors and 50-for school board positions. Every ballot will need to be counted, tabulated and eventually checked to ensure accuracy.

Smaller communities won’t experience the same problem. Counting a few hundred votes by hand isn’t a big issue.

For bigger communities though, it will be a problem. This sounds like something computers could do for us to save a lot of time. However, for no known reason, other than unfounded allegations by US President Trump and his supporters that the 2020 voting machines were “rigged”, Alberta has banned tabulators to compile election results.

As a result, municipalities will have to pay more to conduct elections, which means those who pay property taxes will be covering the cost of the provincial government’s decision. Virtually every larger city is coming off a year with a massive property tax increase as it is.

It’s crazy and the worst thing is most Albertans aren’t even aware how long it will take to get election results. Even the news media hasn’t raised a red flag.

Blame "Some Albertans"

You’re probably asking why this change was made, since it makes zero sense.

The government claims it made the change to enhance public trust in the electoral process. Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver noted that some Albertans lack confidence in machine-counted ballots, and the ban aims to ensure that election results are widely accepted.

I’m wondering who these people are? I’ve never heard any concerns about the accuracy of election results in Alberta, or Canada for that matter. Do “some Albertans” lack confidence in the accuracy of computer-tabulated results because of the fuss Trump and his colleagues made after the 2020 US election?

I think we know the answer. They do of course, but just like Trump and his buddies they have no proof. One court after another in the US looked for facts and evidence of tampering for years and found none. But in Alberta, we’re changing a system that has worked fine because of the fear of “some Albertans?”

There’s very little in politics that makes sense these days. This is just another brick in the wall.

Come October, don’t expect election results on election night. Don’t blame the city, town or county you live in for taking so long to announce those results.

Blame the government of Premier Danielle Smith for listening to the concerns of “some Albertans.”