The City of Red Deer unanimously passed its first reading of a new Elections Bylaw that will be in place for the 2025 fall provincial election.
Even as council passed first reading Tuesday, they acknowledged the bylaw could change if and when Bill 20 passes in the provincial legislature. The Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, (Bill 20) sets new rules for local elections and councils to enhance integrity and maintain public trust. Although the bill received royal ascent in May, it is expected to come into force this fall.
As the elections bylaw is written in its current form, the city assumes it will not be able to use electronic vote tabulators in the 2025 election. In the event that changes, Legal & Legislative Services Manager Michelle Baer said an updated version of the bylaw will be prepared for second reading. The Local Authorities Election Act requires the city to have a bylaw in place before Dec. 31 of the year before the year of an election.
"With Bill 20 not yet in force, Albertan municipalities are a position where a choice has to be made on being proactive or risking non-compliance with future legislation," the report to council read.
"Administration has chosen to assume Bill 20 will be proclaimed, and to draft a new Elections Bylaw that will be in compliance with Bill 20."
Councillor Lawrence Lee questioned why the city couldn't include a provision or language that would allow them to pivot if the Bill 20 changes don't come through. Baer said while the city did explore this option, the bylaw was overburdened with potentially unnecessary information.
"We certainly grappled with that question while we were drafting," Baer said.
"This bylaw is going to be used by a number of municipalities. It was determined it would be really cumbersome to put the 'if it doesn't pass, this will happen' because it will be really hard to predict what portions of Bill 20 may or may not get proclaimed. Going down that road, we ended up with a really horrible-looking bylaw when we went that route.":
The province will now require the city to create a permanent electors register. When electors arrive at a polling station, they will now be greeted by an election worker who will have a laptop and will be using their laptop to input up-to-date elector information.
"We do anticipate a lot of work," Baer said of updating and maintaining the register on election day.
City Manager Tara Lodewyk entered into the record that the changes will potentially increase the city's election budget by $650,000, which will be mostly spent hiring over 200 workers to count votes, if tabulators cannot be used. The budget is expected to be around 1.4 million for the 2025 election.
If the bylaw in its current form passes, candidates will be required to pay a $100 nomination deposit and will require 100 signatures to verify their interest in running for mayor and 50 for a councillor. Baer said the city hopes this will dissuade any unserious candidates from running.
"Some people we find across Canada these days seem to have a bucket list that they want to run for mayor or run for council. Sometimes we don't see enough investment from those candidates who just want to get their name on the ballot," Baer said.
"What we're trying to do is increase the level of engagement of all candidates, so it would raise the bar for everybody."
In the past, if the tabulator flagged an error on a ballot, the elector had the option to fill out another ballot. Without tabulators, ballots with mistakes will be treated as "spoiled".
Where and how school boards will be included in the 2025 election is still in the works. In the past, with electronic tabulators, those positions could all be included on a single piece of paper and separated by the tabulator. They will likely need to be printed on additional papers in order to be properly organized and counted.
"Going forward we will separate our ballots. Functionally, it works best for us because we have to count them and we don't have ward systems... When we use tabulators, the mayor and the councillors ballot was all combined because it could be fed in and scanned," Baer said.
"Printing more ballots and colour printing, certainly adds to the cost of production."
City officials also discussed eligibility for special ballots, which was broadened by Bill 20, and the bylaw now reflects this. The cut-off to request a special ballot is moved to the first day of advance voting, not election day. The cut-off for special ballots to be received at City Hall remains unchanged at 4:30 p.m. on election day.
The new bylaw also proposes polling stations will open at 9 a.m., instead of 10 a.m. The election results will still be made official by noon the Friday following election day. Unofficial results will be announced as soon as the city gets unofficial results counted.
