Those who have dreams of serving on city council or as a school trustee in Lethbridge can officially throw their hat into the ring with nominations for the 2025 municipal election open.
The 2025 Election will decide who will serve as mayor for the City of Lethbridge from 2025 to 2029 and those who will make up the rest of city council. Nominations are open until noon on September 22nd, with advanced voting on October 8th, with election day on October 20th.
Even though the election is 10 months away officials say this election will look different than past ones because of legislation put in place by the Alberta Government. Changes in Bill 20, which was passed by the province in October, include an electors registry and the elimination of electronic counters resulting in municipalities needing to hand count the vote. Returning Officer Bonnie Hilford says the City of Lethbridge has been using electronic counters since 1992 and the elimination of this tool will significantly delay results being released.
“We won’t get them the Monday night of the election, as we usually do,” Hilford says. “We’ve done two mock exercises, and what we’ve concluded is that it will probably take at least 44 hours with 20 teams counting consecutively, and that’s with four to five people on each team.”
She says that taking into consideration those in the counting teams will need to sleep and eat, it is estimated that the results will not be released until Friday.
Unlike in past elections where mayor, councillor and trustee election nominees were all on one ballot, this year they will be on separate colour-coded ballets. Hilford explains the separate ballots will then be put into the separate colour-coded ballot boxes.
“So it will be a little different, and we’ll have people there helping people or helping the voters understand which ballots to put the ballot boxes in.”
The estimated costs for the bill 20 changes are expected to be over $300,000. Hilford says the city does have reserves available because the city has not had any plebiscites or by-elections in a while in several years. These costs will address the software needed for the registry, along with the cost to have people man the voting stations to monitor the registry list.
More information about the Nomination Process and period for the upcoming election, along with other information on the election can be found on the city’s website.
