Calgary’s election is now down to its final hours before the polls open on Oct. 20, and tens of thousands will cast their ballots for the next members of Calgary city council and for school board trustees.

But behind the scenes hundreds of election workers are preparing the polls for those electors, and getting ready to count all of those ballots by hand.

It’s a task made far more complex by this election not having the use of electronic tabulators.

One of the biggest changes for the 2025 election, versus the 2021 election, is the use of a centralized counting centre at the Big Four Building on Stampede Park to count the 96,549 ballots cast in advance polls and at care facilities and shelters.

“Over the next two days, we will have approximately 500 election workers that will be conducting the hand count here. We are also anticipating about 130 scrutineers for each mayoral campaign. Then each councilor campaign may have up to 120 scrutineers as well. Then, of course, the school board trustees can also have each up to about 120 scrutineers,” said Kate Martin, Returning Officer for Elections Calgary.

“This will be a very busy location starting tomorrow evening and well into Tuesday.”

The counting centre has been divided into 43 different stations for workers and scrutineers, representing the 41 advance poll locations along with mail-in ballots and the ballots cast outside of Calgary for the separate school division trustees.

Martin said the counting of those ballots will be focused on the mayoral candidates on the night of Oct. 20, to be prepared for any recounts or challenges that might arise.

Unlike at polls, which will count cast ballots until complete for all of the races, election workers at the centre will cease work at 1 a.m., and return on Oct. 21 to complete the ward races and then the trustee races.

Martin said that this was being done to both protect the health of workers, but also to ensure the integrity of the counts.

“First and foremost, we need to consider the health and safety of our election workers. It will be a very long day for them to count, also the integrity of the count. It is important to us that as the counting proceeds, that we are counting efficiently, but we are also doing the count with accuracy,” she said.

Election as secure as 2021, but more costly and requiring more workers

Due to hand counting ballots, the cost of this election for Calgarians has increased by $1.3 million, out of a general increase of $3.3 million for the entire election. The budget for the 2025 general election was set by the previous council at $15 million.

Martin said the integrity of the election wouldn’t be impacted by the method of counting votes.

“Both vote counting methods have integrity within them. They might certainly look different, but whether it is a tabulator count, or whether it is a hand count, both have their own security and integrity processes built in,” she said.

Calgarians can begin to expect initial results to come in from the counts of ballots starting after polls close at 8 p.m., with the counts for mayoral candidates unofficially complete by 1 a.m. on Oct 21.

Polling station counts of ward and trustee votes will be available throughout the evening, but counts of advance polls for ward councillors will come in starting at 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 21, followed by trustees at 2:30 p.m.

Results will be available live on the LiveWire Calgary election tracker.

Polls open on Oct. 20, at 10 a.m. For more details on where to vote and what identification to bring, see the Plan My Vote tool from Elections Calgary and the Calgary Public Library at www.planmyvote.ca.