Long lineups, complex voting procedures and challenges with new technology affected the voting experience for a significant number of Edmontonians during the 2025 municipal election, according to a newly-released interim post-election report.
The report, presented to the city’s audit committee Wednesday, outlines early findings from Edmonton Elections’ review of the October 2025 vote and identifies several areas for improvement ahead of the next municipal election in 2029.
While a majority of voters were able to cast ballots without major difficulty, the report suggests that changes driven by new provincial legislation — including the introduction of a permanent electors register and a shift to hand-counted ballots — contributed to delays and confusion at some voting stations.
“There were so many changes,” said Thu Parmar, one of the city councillors who reviewed the report at city hall on Wednesday.
“It wasn’t one change. It was one bill that came through, then one bill got amended, and so there were multiple changes leading up to that election day.”
About 60 per cent of voters surveyed said they completed the voting process in 30 minutes or less, and 83 per cent finished within an hour.
However, 16 per cent reported waiting longer than an hour, with longer wait times strongly linked to lower satisfaction.
Overall, 63 per cent of Edmonton voters said they were satisfied with their experience, the report said.
Satisfaction dropped sharply amongst those who waited more than an hour: dropping to 24 per cent for waits of one to two hours and just 14 per cent for waits exceeding two hours.
“Edmontonians were very committed to voting,” said Ward Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi councillor Jon Morgan. “I did hear about long lines during the election, upwards of two hours… but I also heard they were committed to seeing it through.
“So I’m pretty proud of that fact — for Edmontonians to be that committed to it, but, I can understand their frustrations.”
Voters and election workers both pointed to complexity in voting process as a key source of their frustration.
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Fifteen per cent of surveyed voters reported difficulties with forms, verification steps and multi-station workflows — particularly in situations where they needed to be added to or updated on the new permanent electors register.
Those more complex transactions often slowed voting lines, the report said, contributing to bottlenecks during peak periods at some polling locations.
The changes this year prohibited the use of electronic vote tabulators and instead required all ballots to be counted by hand, increasing the number of ballots and ballot boxes used at each voting station.
“I would definitely like to see a return to our tabulators,” said Morgan, who was elected to city council back in October. “That would be a big help for our election team and for the safety and security of our elections.”
Several boxes of ballots had to be re-counted by hand during the election, delaying the release of the results. Morgan said using paper ballots and people counting introduces room for error.
“We should be using the tools that are proven to make sure that our elections are fair and free.”
The 2025 election marked the first time Edmonton was required to use a permanent electors register, following amendments to Alberta’s Local Authorities Election Act.
To support the permanent register, Edmonton Elections deployed an electronic elector register at voting stations. While the system allowed for real-time updates and added security protections, it also posed challenges for some people hired to work the polls.
Election workers were surveyed and 22 per cent said the technology was difficult to use, while nine per cent reported technical issues during their shift.
They also reported difficulty completing required paperwork, including ballot accounting forms, with 22 per cent saying those procedures were hard to complete.
“There is so much more work to this election than there has been in the past,” Parmar said.
During the election, residents voted for mayor, their city councillor, and school trustee and instead of one electronic ballot with all their names on it, the 2025 election saw it split up.
“In this sense, it was actually three separate votes. So that created more time,” Parmar said of the workers having to physically doll out the three different sheets of paper.
“That may not have been factored when you were looking at how many people you were going to hire.”
The report notes while accurate ballot accounting is essential to election integrity, some workers felt the complexity of the process limited their ability to serve voters efficiently — especially during busy periods such as the early evening when people got off work and went to vote.
Gaps in training were another contributing factor.
More than 5,400 election workers were hired to staff the election, filling more than 6,600 positions. While most workers completed mandatory online and in-person training, feedback suggested more hands-on training would have helped workers navigate the new systems and forms more confidently.
To address concerns raised during advance voting, Edmonton Elections offered additional hands-on training for supervisors.
Those who took part said it improved confidence and effectiveness, but the opportunity to take part could not be extended to all workers due to time and capacity constraints.
“I think what we heard very clearly was that it’s very difficult to train 5,000 people for one day, right? And I think to give some grace to that, what we saw was that the checks and balances did work.”
In a separate advisory report, the city auditor echoed many of the same concerns, noting observations on election day revealed frustrations amongst both voters and staff — largely tied to system challenges and form completion.
The auditor’s office had one main suggestion: Edmonton Elections consider a more comprehensive, hands-on training approach for future elections to reduce voter frustration and operational risk.
Parmar said she’s looking forward to seeing an action plan.
“What are they actually going to do to make sure that we can have higher voter turnout, that we can have a service level that is definitely not over one hour to be able to vote?
“That is not what Edmontonians expect, it’s not what I expect, it’s not what council expects and so we’ll be looking at that.”
Despite the challenges, the auditor reported Edmonton Elections addressed all significant findings before and during the election, and issues identified during ballot reconciliation did not affect election results.
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