Despite several close races for mayor and wards in the 2025 Calgary municipal election, no candidate has yet put in a request for a recount despite at least one saying they would do so.
Speaking to LWC after the completion of the counting of ballots on Oct. 21, Returning Officer Kate Martin said that Elections Calgary had yet to receive any requests.
Runner-up mayoral candidate Sonya Sharp, who was 585 votes shy of Mayor-elect Jeromy Farkas, said that she would be requesting a recount.
Martin said that it was important for Calgarians to know that candidates have not one, but two chances for recounts in the election.
“There is a recount that is conducted on the unofficial results. That recount must be submitted to myself as the returning officer for Elections Calgary by Wednesday, October 22. So that’s within 44 hours of the voting stations closing. As of right now, I am not in receipt of a recount application,” she said.
The Local Authorities Election Act has three criteria that candidates would have to make reasonable allegations towards for a recount to occur.
“The first one is a candidate must establish reasonable grounds that the vote count is inaccurate. The second criteria is where I, as the returning officer, determine that there is a sufficient amount of rejected ballots or ballots objected to that would impact the outcome of the election. Then the third criteria is for myself as the returning officer to determine that there was either an administrative error or a technical error that would impact the count,” said Martin.
Martin said the second chance for a recount, if those criteria are not met, would come after the official count is declared later this week.
“Once I declare the results on noon, Friday, October 24, candidates who are the runner-up—so they are the second-place candidates—if the vote differential is 0.5 per cent to the winner, that candidate can also request an application at that point in time for a recount.”
Those counts would only occur on polls that are themselves within the 0.5 per cent differential, and not the entire count. Martin said that candidates would have an opportunity to request a poll be recounted after the individual polling station results are posted by Elections Calgary.
The 0.1 per cent difference between Farkas and Sonya overall would not trigger a recount under the Local Authorities Election Act, said Martin.
What will happen automatically starting on Oct. 22, ahead of the tabulation of the official vote counts, is that rejected ballots not counted during the counting period will be reviewed.
Martin said that this was being done to ensure that instances where rejected ballot counts that could change the outcome of races would be properly accounted for and that election counts would be accurate.
Any recounts would be covered by taxpayers as part of the budget allocated to Elections Calgary for the entire election.
“It’s approximately $11.4 million. We did have to spend an additional $1.3 million to prepare ourselves for the permanent electoral register. Over the year, we’ve had some escalating costs of an additional $3.3 million again to prepare for the delivery of this election. The recount will come out of my budget,” said Martin.
Any recounts would have to be completed by noon on Oct. 29, for the swearing in of elected officials, she said.
