It’s likely to be a long night — and for many municipalities, long days — to tally election results in Alberta, thanks to the switch this year away from machines in favour of a hand count.
The province banned electronic vote tabulators in legislation passed last year, a change some cities warn will take longer, cost more, and increase the risk of spoiled ballots.
“We have prepared significantly, we have increased the number of voting stations, we have increased the number of election workers,” said Calgary chief returning officer Kate Martin.
Calgarians are likely to learn the mayoral results on election night Monday, Oct. 20, but it could take a bit longer to learn the winners of the council and trustee races.
I also work with people who get paid to do manual data entry. I would be skeptical of any close results, you will probably get a different number each time it’s counted.
Yup! That’s why as soon as the result is within some margin, there is a judicial recounting: they re-count the votes in a much more controlled environment, with 3 person looking at each ballot, and a judge/layer taking notes.
If you have the opportunity, i encourage you to volunteer to work in your local elections. It’s a great way to learn about all the mechanism in place to ensure elections are fair, and to do your part to help!