Edmonton Election: Andrew Knack leads mayoral race as counting pauses

Long lines and technology issues caused problems for some voters in Edmonton on municipal election day, with others choosing to leave, rather than wait.

Albertans went to the polls on Monday to elect mayors, councillors and school board trustees.

In Edmonton, election day was marked by several issues at polling stations, including long wait times.

Polls closed at 8 p.m. and results started coming in at 10:30 p.m.

Counting paused at 1 a.m. on Tuesday and will resume at 9 a.m.

Mayoral results

Andrew Knack is leading the mayoral race with 20,540 votes, followed by Tim Cartmell with 15,645 votes.

Michael Walters is third with 6,422 votes, Omar Mohammad is fourth with 5,879 and Rahim Jaffer is fifth with 2,448.

The preliminary results come from 48 out of 236 polls.

Ward results

Anirniq: Incumbent Erin Rutherford is in the lead with 1,800 votes, or 44.2 per cent, with six of 22 polls reporting.

Dene: Incumbent Aaron Paquette is in the lead with 4,358 votes, or 42.5 per cent, with 12 of 20 polls reporting,

Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi: With two of 21 polls reporting, Jon Morgan is in the lead with 565 votes. Incumbent Jennifer Rice is right behind at 558 votes.

Karhiio: Incumbent Keren Tang is in the lead with 3,244 votes (45.4 per cent) with eight of 22 polls reporting.

Métis: With five of 25 polls reporting results, incumbent Ashley Salvador is in the lead with 1,883 votes, or 47.7 per cent.

Nakota Isga: Reed Clarke is in the lead with 1,003 votes (49.8 per cent) with three of 22 polls reporting.

O-day’min: Incumbent Anne Stevenson leads the central Edmonton ward with 1,272 votes (49.2 per cent) with three of 19 polls reporting results.

papastew: With nine of 20 polls reporting results, incumbent Michael Janz is in the lead with 6,103 votes, or 57.6 per cent of the vote.

pihêsiwin: With two of 20 polls reporting in Ward pihêsiwin, candidate Jackie Liu has a narrow lead with 601 votes. Michael Elliot is second with 595.

sipiwiyiniwak: Darrell Friesen leads a narrow race with 1,561 votes, or 26.4 per cent. General Giselle has 1,435 votes.

Sspomitapi: Incumbent Jo-Anne Wright leads the ward with 1,825 votes, or 34.1 per cent, with three of 21 polls reporting results.

tastawiyiniwak: Incumbent Karen Principe is winning with 2,914 votes, nearly 50 per cent.

Issues at voting stations across Edmonton

As polls close in Edmonton’s municipal election, many have expressed frustration with issues at some voting stations across the city, including long wait times.

Voting closed at 8 p.m., but some voters were still in line to cast their ballots.

While some stations were seeing long wait times, the city suspended voting at St. Timothy Catholic Elementary School in Ward Anirniq due to a power outage.

Voters assigned to that station were told to cast their ballots at Caernarvon School at 14820 118 St.

In a statement to CTV News Edmonton around 10 p.m., EPCOR said power went out in the Baranow, Caernarvon and Carlisle neighbourhoods around 5:48 p.m.

“The preliminary cause is an equipment failure - we continue to investigate a more specific explanation,” the company said, adding that power was restored at 7:21 p.m.

Despite this, one man said his daughter was unable to vote after being told to wait during the power outage. She was eventually redirected to Caernarvon after polls had closed.

“There are some who can’t come back, like my daughter won’t come back to vote,” said Mike Yankee. “So that’s one lost vote for somebody that should’ve had it.”

Angela Crevels said she is “super disappointed” after her ballot for mayor was deemed invalid when a worker saw that it was not initialled as she dropped it into the ballot box.

“It’s not fair,” said Crevels. “I’m super disappointed with the lack of responsibility and the lack of care and attention.”

She said she’s concerned that other ballots may be invalid for the same reason.

Crevels and her husband went to Thelma Chalifoux School to vote.

Voters at Wîhkwêntôwin School waited an hour or more at times to cast their ballot. Workers apologized to those in line as three staff members didn’t show up.

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A spokesperson with Edmonton Elections said some stations were impacted due to staff shortages.

“We did have some election workers who were hired, trained and assigned to voting stations, but unfortunately, their circumstances changed and they were not able to join us today,” said the city in an email to CTV News Edmonton.

Earlier in the day, some stations saw issues with computers. The city said tech teams were deployed to deal with the issue and reboot the system.

“The matter was addressed within 90 minutes of it being reported to our team,” said an email from the city.

One voter at École publique Gabrielle-Roy said it took about 45 minutes to vote.

“I think it’s a problem when people have to wait that long,” said Greg Plouffe. “Some people might end up walking away.”

He said with election cards, which are typically mailed out beforehand, things went more smoothly.

With Canada Post on strike, the city wasn’t able to mail out those cards.

Plouffe and some of the other voters said it was taking upwards of five minutes per person and there were about 50 people in line.

“I don’t remember being in line this long,” said Neill Fitzpatrick, who had to leave for work and come back later to vote.

“Tonight we’ll come back, hopefully before the polls close, and try to vote again,” he said.

CTV News Edmonton has received reports of long wait times at the following stations:

• Parkland Immanuel Christian School - 5320 Edgemont Blvd.
• McKernan School - 11330 76 Ave.
• Wîhkwêntôwin School - 10227 118 St.
• Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church - 10140 119 St.
• S. Bruce Smith School - 5545 184 St.
• Bishop Savaryn Catholic Elementary - 16215 109 St.
• École publique Gabrielle-Roy - 8728 93 Ave.

CTV News Edmonton will update this article with results as they come in Monday night.

• Full Coverage: Edmonton Election 2025

Who’s running?

Thirteen people are vying to become Edmonton’s next mayor. The top five candidates are Michael Walters, Rahim Jaffer, Andrew Knack, Omar Mohammad and Tim Cartmell.

The majority of wards have incumbents running for reelection, except for Nakota Isga (Knack’s former ward), pihêsiwin (Cartmell’s former ward) and sipiwiyiniwak.

• A full list of the official mayoral and council candidates for Edmonton’s election

What are the main issues?

CTV News Edmonton sat down with the top mayoral candidates to get their thoughts and platform promises on issues top of mind for Edmontonians:

• Mayoral candidates on taxes, cost of living
• Mayoral candidates on safety
• Mayoral candidates on infill
• Mayoral candidates on construction and city growth
• Mayoral platform tracker for top issues

Why are there parties this year?

Some mayoral and council candidates are associated to one of two parties: Better Edmonton and Principled Accountable Coalition for Edmonton (PACE).

The Alberta government made changes in 2024 that would allow parties at the municipal level for this election.

• Municipal parties, explained

Better Edmonton has one candidate running for mayor (Cartmell) and a candidate in each ward, and PACE has one candidate in nine wards.