Edmontonians brave long lines to vote in municipal election

Edmontonians are hitting the polls to elect their mayor, councillors and school board trustees.

Voters told CityNews some of the biggest issues for them are public safety, infrastructure, taxes and affordability.

“I think safety is important for us and affordability. Some strong direction and non-political,” said Louise Lavers, an Edmonton voter.

John Gaunt, another Edmonton voter, said: “I wanna see like a reset in terms of changes and the efforts that they’re gonna be working on.”

Another voter, Joyanne, said: “Safety and community building and you know making sure that we’re supporting the people that need to be supported.”

Despite the long lineups in some polling stations, voters said the process was generally efficient.

“I stood in line probably for half an hour, but the process itself was very straightforward,” said Gloria.

Amy added: “I had to wait 15-20 minutes and then I was able to vote.”

There are 13 candidates for mayor, with polls consistently showing Andrew Knack, Tim Cartmell, Michael Walters, Rahim Jaffer, and Omar Mohammad as top contenders.

Outgoing city councillors Knack and Cartmell both cast their ballots Monday morning.

“There’s obviously excitement, there’s exhilaration, there’s always gonna be a little bit of nervousness on a day like today as well. I couldn’t have asked for better campaign. It’s hard because we’re severely underfunded compared to the other campaigns because of the rules that were set up,” said Knack.

Cartmell said: “Guardedly optimistic, I guess. It’s been quite a run. It’s been a great campaign. We had a great team. And we’ve done the best job. I don’t think we could’ve done anything differently.”

There are also a total 81 candidates running for 12 city council seats in each of Edmonton’s municipal wards.

“It does make it more challenging, for sure,” said Gaunt.

Amy added: “I think it also can be confusing for people that are wanting to do the research for each candidate.”

This year, all the ballots will be counted by hand instead of electronic tabulators after new provincial legislation, passed by the UCP government in 2024.

“This was a gift from the provincial government. This hand counting thing. It makes no sense to me. It’s gonna cost the city a lot of money,” said Cartmell.

While Knack said: “It’s rather silly to go to a hand ballot counting. It means people have to wait much, much longer for results when there’s never been of election fraud.”

Polling stations across the city are open until 8 p.m. on Monday, and Edmonton Elections says unofficial results will be available by noon Tuesday, while official results are to be announced at noon on Friday.