City clerk details election changes

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on November 29, 2024.

Herald photo by Al Beeber City Clerk and 2025 returning officer Bonnie Hilford and deputy city clerk David Sarsfield sit behind ballot boxes during a session on election changes Thursday at city hall.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

The banning of automated voting equipment for the 2025 Alberta municipal elections is going to have a massive impact on municipalities including Lethbridge.

That ban is one of several changes included in Bill 20, the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act which was proclaimed on Oct. 31.

The Act also allows municipalities to require criminal record checks for candidates and requires them to create a permanent electors register – a voting list – which will be done in partnership with Elections Alberta.

For the City of Lethbridge the prohibition of electronic tabulators which have been used here since 1992 with no problems is going to delay the results of the Oct. 20 election from being known for as long as four days. And the delay could be longer if recounts are necessary.

While results from elections since 1992 have been made available within an hour or tow of polls closing, the requirement to hand-count ballots is going substantially slow that process.

The Governance Standing Policy Committee of city council on Thursday after a presentation by City Clerk and 2025 returning officer Bonnie Hilford and deputy city clerk David Sarsfield voted to recommend city council give three readings to Replacement Election Bylaw 6473 at its Dec. 10 meeting, which will be the final council meeting before Christmas. That bylaw must be adopted by Dec. 31.

Hilford and Sarsfield addressed election changes in council chamber Thursday before detailing them at the SPC in the afternoon.

Hand-counting ballots is much more time-consuming and complex, Hilford told media.

While previously all candidates for mayor, council, school boards and any questions council or the province might ask voters’ input on were listed on one ballot, that changes in 2025.

Each voter will have separate ballots for mayoral candidates, council candidates, school board candidates and those questions.

This means the City will be using colour coded ballot boxes and will be utilizing 20 teams of four members each to count the ballots at three so-called super-sized voting which will be utilized instead of 14 smaller stations.

Teams include two one caller, two tickers and one supervisor. Callers read the names out while both tickers mark votes on separate improved tally sheets. The supervisor monitors, reviews rejected ballots and enters both sheet totals into a spreadsheet as well as ensuring the process is secure and adhered to.

The voting window will run from Oct. 8 to Oct. 20.

The 20 counting teams are going to need to 20 rooms and large secured storage spaces for 250 or more ballot boxes from Monday, Oct. 20 until the afternoon of Friday Oct. 24 or longer if a recount is needed.

In the 2021 election, the City had one tabulator/ballot box at each voting station but in 2025 at least four ballot boxes will be needed at each station.

An at-large system such as Lethbridge’s will be more time-consuming than in communities with ward systems with eight councillors, seven, public school trustees and five separate school trustees listed on ballots, Hilford told media.

A hand-counting exercise conducted by Administration just for council members showed that it took 28 minutes to count 50 ballots. One team took 168 minutes to count 250 ballots, an average of 40.3 seconds per ballot. A second team took 178.5 minutes to count 250 ballots, for an average of 42.9 seconds each.

Total time to count councillor ballots at 41.6 seconds each is estimated at 370 hours. With 20 teams of four people counting at the same time, that will take an estimated 18.5 hours to complete counting those ballots after the October election.

Counting ballots for mayoral candidates will be quicker, according to another exercise. One team completed a count of 501 ballots in 33 minutes. A second team took 44 minutes to complete 485 ballots.

The exercise showed that 16 teams of five – a total of 80 people – could finish the count in 2.6 hours.

It’s estimated it will take 80 people a total of 44 hours to hand-count all votes for mayor, councillors and school trustees.

Hilford told the SPC ballot counting will start on Tuesday, Oct. 21 with three shifts per day of four hours and an estimated total of 11 shifts.

The cost of the election will almost double from 2021 election. The budget for 2025 is based on the 2021 voter turnout of 35 per cent (28,298) plus growth of 3,700.

Standard election expenses are $342,186 but the impacts of Bill 20 will add $323,360 to that amount for a total of $665,546. But no further taxpayer funding will be required due to unspent budget funds and monies contained in the 2023-26 operating budget.

The permanent electors register means that prior to Oct. 1, voters will have to go on the Elections Alberta website to get onto the registry or to update information. After Oct.1, they will have to complete a form in duplicate at the voting station during the election. Extra workers are going to be needed at each voting station for this work for a total of 76 (19 for each including advance polling station). The cost for additional resources at voting stations is expected to be $26,000.