Election changes mean longer wait for results
By Lethbridge Herald on October 21, 2025.
HERALD PHOTO BY JOE MANIO
After casting their ballots at the Trinity Reformed Church polling station Monday, voters proudly pose for a picture between two whimsical "I voted" posters while flashing their proof of voting stickers.Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald
The 2025 municipal election is officially over, but unlike previous years, voters will have to wait to find out if which candidates were elected to local councils and school boards.
All votes cast between Oct. 8 and yesterday are being counted by hand, due to changes made to Bill 20, The Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, by the provincial government.
Changes to Bill 20 came into effect last October and include requiring municipalities to create a permanent electors register, and the prohibition of automated voting equipment, such as electronic tabulators.
Last year, after the changes came into effect, Bonnie Hilford, Returning Officer/City Clerk, and David Sarsfield, Deputy City Clerk, presented to Governance SPC in Nov. 28 about the estimated cost and time it will take to count votes by hand.
They mentioned that standard election expenses were $342,186, with an additional $323,360 estimated due to Bill 20 impacts. The City is responsible for these costs, but there will be no additional taxpayer funds required for 2025 due to Budget Appropriations Unexpended (BAU – unspent funds) and allotted money in the 2023-2026 Operating Budget.
Hilford said during the SPC meeting that a hand-count in Lethbridge has not been done since 1989.
“At-large versus ward system of election makes hand-counting ballots more complex and time-consuming where the voters choose more than one candidate.”
In Lethbridge, voters cast ballots for eight city councillors, seven Public School Trustees and five Separate School Trustees. And with each voter having separate ballots for mayoral candidates, council candidates, and school board candidates, the counting by hand will take time.
As each ballot is colour coded and each voter receives three, each voting station will have four ballot boxes. Compared to 2021 where each voting station had one tabulator and one ballot box. In 2021, there was 48 ballot boxes in each voting station, and it was estimated that for 2025 there would be over 250.
“We conducted two hand counting exercises to test and estimate the resources required,” said Hilford.
A video of the exercise showed that 50 councillor ballots were counting in 28 minutes.
“We are estimating approximately 32,000 councillor ballots, and we will also have ballots for mayor and schools, so we are estimating around 100,000 ballots,” said Hilford.
She said that since it was a very monotonous process and it was hard on the eyes, there will be multiple breaks for those counting and tabulating the votes manually.
“It actually took 41.6 seconds per ballot. We have 32,000 ballots for councillor so that’s 370 hours. We’re going to do 20 teams counting consecutively of four people each, so that’s 18.5 hours just to count councillor ballots,” said Hilford.
She said that since there is only one person being elected for Mayor, the process will be a lot faster. The exercise for mayoral candidate ballots took only 4.69 seconds per ballot which shows that it will take 80 people 2.6 hours to count.
To count the five public school trustees’ ballots, the exercise showed 80 people would take 10.67 hours as it took 30 seconds per ballot and they estimated 25,600 ballots for 2025.
To count the seven separate school trustees’ ballots, the exercise showed 80 people would take 2.67 hours as it took 30 seconds per ballot and they estimated 6,400 ballots for 2025.
“We did it in four-hour shifts, as we didn’t feel people could count any longer than that without a big break,” said Hilford.
During the presentation Hilford showed a slide that showcased the estimated cost of counting ballots by hand, where it was estimated based on four-hour shifts as follows:
• To count councillor ballots: 80 people at 18.5 hours will take four shifts.
• To count Public School Trustees ballots: 80 people at 10.67 hours will take three shifts.
• To count Separate School Trustees ballots: 80 people at 2.67 hours will take 1 shift.
• To count Mayor ballots: 80 people at 2.6 hours will take 1 shift.
• Institutional and Vote at Home ballots: 1 shift.
The cost was shown as each four-hour shift costing $100 per person, with a total of $88,000 for 80 people counting for 11 shifts.
“This will probably take four days of counting. There will be three shifts per day, so we are probably looking at start counting on Tuesday, as we have to balance Monday night,” said Hilford.
At the time she estimated the results may be in by Friday based on the results from their exercise, but it is uncertain at this time how long it will actually take.
The City of Lethbridge shared that as of Monday morning, since voting opened on Oct. 8, only 9,213 people had cast a ballot. This represents 10.4 per cent of the 88,647 eligible voters.
30-29
My fridge can text me when we’re out of milk, but we’re here hand counting ballots in 2025
The delay due to mandated hand count is frustrating but the extra cost to Lethbridge taxpayers is unacceptable. Hopefully whomever we elect I hope they pressure Smith to cover this cost she imposed on cities.
Why are not people more upset about all this extra effort and expense only because dear leader bought into a Trump election loss conspiracy theory that the electronic voting machines were “rigged” against him .