If there was one universal for the 2025 Calgary general municipal election, it’s that long lines and a frustrating paperwork process led to discontent among voters.

Social media posts over the past 24 hours have been rife with complaints about the time it took to cast ballots at polling stations across Calgary. Some say the long lines were a factor in the weak voter turnout in Calgary’s municipal election.

While many were quick to blame the workers at the polls for the delays, Elections Calgary said changes to the Local Authorities Election Act through the province’s Bill 20 were a major friction point at polling stations.

“The permanent electoral register, in combination with having to complete the paper forms for anyone looking for a trustee ballot as well, and completing the form for the ballot allocations and issuing the three separate paper hand ballots, all of those processes that are new as set out in the local authorities Election Act, all of those did contribute to slower processing time of voters,” said Kate Martin, Returning Officer for Elections Calgary.

Speaking to CBC Calgary on Oct. 21, Minister of Municipal Affairs Dan Williams was quoted by that media outlet as saying that municipalities had more than a year to prepare for the changes to the local elections.

He said that labour shortages were the cause of the long lines.

“I’m hoping that the labour shortages are corrected going forward,” said Minister Williams.

Martin said that while the amendments to the Local Authorities Election Act did come into effect in October of 2024, regulations surrounding the municipal elections were introduced by the province in the new year.

“Our runway was not that full year. The regulations came in force in January, and to establish a counting centre of this size, to recruit and train 4,500 election workers to be able to prepare their training manuals, to be able to secure a secure [ballot] printer, to prepare all of our ballots, to be able to work through the logistics of how that hand count would occur—there’s various methods in terms of how a hand count can occur—so we had to do some research, we had to connect with other jurisdictions,” she said.

“I would say to the minister, we prepared. We invested in technology. We invested in election workers. We invested in a counting center. We invested in having additional voting opportunities.”

Martin said that when compared to the 2021 election, the number of polls was increased from 188 to 261 to account for those legislative changes. The number of employees hired was also increased, she said.

Unlike in the last election, which saw voters receive one ballot card, electors were given three ballots, with election workers having to determine whether an elector would receive a trustee ballot for the public or separate system.

Martin said that the process of having to look up an elector on the permanent electoral register, complete a form if they did not, sign the back of ballots, complete separate forms for trustee races, and complete another form for the addition of electors to the register added another layer of complexity to the election process that did not exist in 2021.

Additionally, provincial requirements meant that once the form for the permanent electoral register was completed, it had to be placed into a secure box, but at the same time the province required that those names be added to the register lists—leading to the use of carbon copies at the polls to satisfy both provincial requirements.

“All those individual little steps did add to the additional processing times,” said Martin.

City election is an apples-to-oranges comparison to federal and provincial elections

Comments by Minister Williams putting the onus on municipalities to hand-count ballots promptly, like the federal election, were also rebuffed by Martin.

The 2025 federal election saw 11 races in Calgary counted, versus 29 separate races for the municipal election. That also surpasses the provincial count of 26 races during a general election for the city.

“It is two very, very different processes, in the sense that when it comes to the municipal election, voters are casting up to three ballots, and those three ballots, each one of them varies by the number of candidates on the ballot. That’s not what the provincial election faces, and nor does the federal,” said Martin.

“It’s challenging to compare them as the same, because the complexity of having to issue each voter up to three ballots, and then at the end of the night to count all those contests, and we are counting four contests. So, even though each voter receives three ballots, we are counting four contests. That is a complexity in itself.”

Across the city, Martin said that election workers were moved to higher traffic locations to address the growing lines at polling stations.

“We certainly have heard from Calgarians that some of our voting stations experienced long line-ups. We are aware of that and I thank Calgarians for staying in those lines. It’s important to me as the Returning Officer for the City, that we create a voting model that every Calgarian has an opportunity to cast that ballot,” she said.

“Certainly look forward to collaborating with the province. There’s some things that we’ve learned in terms of how the legislative changes have impacted the processes, but when I step back and when I look at the totality of it, lessons learned, I am very pleased with how the election went.”

Martin said they will be surveying our election workers and examining lessons learned. Elections Calgary will be delivering a report on the election to the Calgary City Council. That report will also be made available to the public.