With anywhere between 650,000 and more than a million votes to be counted by hand, Edmonton election officials are planning a “round table” method to tabulate votes.

Changes made by the Alberta government to the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act in October 2024 mean election officials are unable to use vote tabulation machines and will have to count all votes by hand.

Elections Edmonton communications adviser Brent Wittmeier said the city has roughly 650,000 registered electors and each would be given up to three ballots — one for the mayor, one for their councillor and one for their school board trustee. If all registered electors fill out all three ballots, that would leave officials to count 1.9 million ballots.

“Edmonton Elections considered multiple variations of hand counti

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