At least three recounts are being requested after Calgary’s municipal election, with candidates concerned about election worker fatigue and observed errors at polling stations and the counting centre.

So far, LWC is aware of a coming recount from Communities First mayoral candidate Sonya Sharp after the conclusion of the official vote, and formal requests from Gar Gar in Ward 9 and Sarah Ferguson in Ward 12 during the unofficial vote period.

Elections Calgary has now decided on both of the councillor requests—for Ferguson and against Gar.

Ferguson has the narrowest margin to overcome, with there being 29 votes separating her and A Better Calgary councillor-elect Mike Jamieson. Gar is behind councillor-elect Harrison Clark by 247, and Sharp is behind mayor-elect Jeromy Farkas by 585 votes.

The two councillor position recounts were submitted under the preliminary recount rules, which allow for a recount within 44 hours of closing voting stations based on potentially inaccurate vote counts, objected or rejected ballots being reconsidered, or if there was an administrative or technical error determined by the Returning Officer.

Both Ferguson and Gar said their scrutineers observed issues that were enough of a concern to request Calgary’s Returning Officer that there be a recount.

“[Election workers] had a long day, and there is just a factor of human error,” Ferguson said.

Her team received reports of the ballots being put in piles for individual candidates and then appearing in different candidate piles. Also, there were issues with the Form 13 that electors had to fill out, raising concerns about consistent ballot tracking.

“It’s not as exact as if it was the tabulator counting it, where it has it very much easier to see for a computer to read those results off the paper,” Ferguson told LWC.

Gar said that his scrutineers flagged issues at a handful of polls. He alleged that at one of the stations, 45 votes were misplaced, and his scrutineers had it corrected.

“That would have been over 45 votes that if the scrutiny wasn’t there, then those 45 votes wouldn’t have been counted,” he told LWC.

“People were waiting in line this time for three hours, four hours, just to cast their vote. So, we wanted to make sure that those votes are not, well, counted wrong. The other part is to even give them confidence that, hey, your vote counts.”

Challenging circumstances for election workers, candidates said

Gar said he only had five scrutineers scattered among the stations. He said if there were potential mistakes observed at those stations, it could happen with the rest of the count. Ferguson said she concurred with Gar’s assessment.

Sharp’s recount request is expected to come after Elections Calgary finalizes results at noon on Friday. They will be applying due to the narrow margin of victory for Farkas, according to her campaign. It was 585 votes, with 380 polling stations.

In a previous media statement, Sharp thanked the election workers for their effort in the face of increased demands and long hours. She also acknowledged the potential for human error in counting the ballots.

“[Election day] was challenging for our election workers – long lines, new procedures, and hand-counting ballots well into the early hours of the morning,” Sharp said.

“This request is by no means a criticism of their hard work. Instead, it suggests that mistakes can occur during stressful situations. Given the razor-thin margin of victory in this election, it makes ample sense to review and double-check that appropriate processes were followed, and the count is accurate.”

Both Gar and Ferguson also acknowledged the tireless effort of Elections Calgary workers in this unduly complicated municipal election to conduct.

“The election workers are all fantastic at what they were doing. It is just a natural part of it that there could be these missed ones,” said Ferguson.

“Will it be enough to account for the 29-vote difference? Who knows? Maybe not. But there is that possibility there, with all these different pieces to the counting, and how many different people were involved with the counting, it just increases those chances.”

Elections Calgary acknowledged the recount requests

In a statement issued Wednesday night, Elections Calgary said they’d receive two preliminary recount requests. One will proceed; the other will not.

The Returning Officer will make a recount of councillor votes cast at all voting stations in Ward 12.

“On examination of the unofficial results, there were sufficient rejected ballots other than those on which no vote has been cast by an elector to affect the result of the election of councillor [Ward 12],” read the Elections Calgary media statement.

“Following the recount, the Ward 12 councillor contest ballot account will be corrected, if necessary.  Any changes to the unofficial result will be communicated by the Returning Officer.”

That recount will start on Thursday at 9 a.m. The official results will be made available by noon on Oct. 24.

The Ward 9 request was denied.

“The Returning Officer considered the information provided and determined that there were insufficient grounds for alleging that the record of the result of the count of votes is inaccurate,” read the statement issued on the Ward 9 recount.

They considered other circumstances under the Local Authorities Election Act, and also determined there wasn’t sufficient evidence.