Hand Count Hurdles: Medicine Hat’s Election Team Delivered
MEDICINE HAT – In 2025 Medicine Hat’s election team faced a tougher challenge than usual. New provincial rules, a brand‑new voter list that the city was required to use, and a complete turnover of the team in charge made this one of the most complex elections in recent memory. The Adminstrative and Legislative Review and Government Relations Committee got a full report today on the 2025 civic election.
New Laws Meant Hand Counting Only
For years, Alberta cities could use machines to count ballots quickly. But in 2025, the province said machines were no longer allowed. Every single ballot had to be counted by hand, on site, at each voting station.
Andres Cardona Arias, Chief Electoral Officer demonstrating kangaroo ballots, Sept 9 2025 - file photo
Hand counting takes much more time and requires more workers. It also costs more money. Because of this, Medicine Hat made a choice to use fewer polling stations than in past elections (10 in 2025, compared to 18 in 2021). This helped keep costs under control.
The city also introduced a “vote anywhere” model. That meant voters could cast their ballot at any of the 10 polling stations in the city, not just one specific location. This gave voters more flexibility and made the fewer stations less of a problem.
A New Voter List Required by the Province
The province introduced a new system called the Permanent Electors Register. Medicine Hat had no choice but to use it. This system was meant to make voting easier, but it added new steps and slowed down the process at polling stations.
Connectivity Problems Got in the Way
Unfortunately, cellular connectivity issues caused problems at some locations. When the signal was weak, it took longer to check voters in. The city tried to post live updates about wait times at each station, but the connectivity issues made that impossible.
The city is planning to have live wait‑time updates working for the next election.
A Record Number of Candidates
Medicine Hat saw a record number of council candidates run for office in 2025, 39 in all plus 6 for mayor and numerous school board trustees. Processing all those candidate papers takes time and money, but that work falls under normal City Hall expenses. The election team itself did not have to cover those costs.
A Completely New Team
Adding to the difficulty, the entire City Clerk department had turned over since the last election in 2021. That means almost nobody on the 2025 team had run a municipal election before which is why they hired a Chief Electoral Officer. They trained 399 election workers (plus 32 reserves) - more than double the 195 workers in 2021.
Sticking to the Budget - Almost
Medicine Hat budgeted $400,000 for the election. The final cost came in at $447,877 - about $48,000 over budget, just under 12%. Those extra costs were covered by savings elsewhere in the city’s budget, so no additional money had to be found.
A Quick Comparison With Lethbridge
For context, the city of Lethbridge budgeted $600,000 for their 2025 election - that is more than $150,000 above Medicine Hat’s final cost (although we do not know how much they eventually spent). Despite that larger budget, Lethbridge had a lower voter turnout than Medicine Hat.
About $24 Per Vote
L-R Chair Stuart Young, Vice Chair Ted Clugston, Interim City Manager Joseph Hutter - Photo Kelly Allard
Chair Stuart Young did some quick math. He figured that Medicine Hat spent about $24 for each vote cast in the 2025 election. He expressed hope that the city could reduce that cost per vote in the next election.
What Went Well, and What Will Improve
The report praises election workers for their “professionalism and adaptability.” Voters are also thanked for their “patience and understanding” - something that helped the whole process succeed.
Looking ahead, the city plans to:
Start project planning much earlier
Improve worker training
Simplify counting materials
Expand public education so voters know what to expect
Build a stronger budget to handle unexpected costs
The Bottom Line
Medicine Hat’s 2025 election was not perfect. The hand counting was slow. The connectivity issues caused delays. The team was brand new. But they followed the law, kept costs reasonable, and counted every ballot accurately. For a first‑time team facing so many changes, that is a job well done.
The report was presented to the Administrative and Legislative Review and Government Relations Committee. This committee is responsible for matters related to legislation, Administration, City organization, and relations with other levels of government referred to it by Council.
Committee members:
Councillor Young, Chair
Councillor Clugston, Vice Chair
Councillor Mohammed
Mayor Clark (ex officio)
