More than four days were needed to count every ballot by hand after Monday's referendum, in the first provincial vote since Alberta banned electronic tabulators. Alberta rarely used tabulators at the provincial level in the past.

But with 20.4 million ballots taking more than 96 hours to tally this week (as each of the 10 referendum questions had its own ballot), some argue Elections Alberta's work would have been completed more quickly with electronic assistance.

Vote tabulators were used to count advanced ballots during Alberta's 2023 provincial election, but last year the United Conservative Party government banned their use. Justice Minister Mickey Amery's office said on Thursday the decision was made to give voters more trust in election results.

“Albertans need to have confidence in the results of elections — that’s why our government has strengthened election laws,” Amery’s office said in an emailed statement.

The minister’s office didn’t respond to a question from CBC News about why hand counting would provide voters with more confidence in results.

The suggestion to ban vote tabulators originated in a policy proposal from the UCP’s Banff-Kananaskis constituency association at the party’s 2023 annual general meeting. The proposal argued the policy could improve upon "potential weakness" in Alberta's electoral system and prevent concerns about fraud.

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Ballots are counted by hand in federal elections, and in Quebec and Saskatchewan. But other provinces like British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario use tabulators.

Hand counting responsible for delay, says former chief electoral officer Low staffing and poor internet connectivity have created delays in counting ballots, Elections Alberta said this week.

But Keith Archer, British Columbia’s former chief electoral officer, argued the labour-intensive hand count is completely responsible for the slow process.

"It's really regrettable that Elections Alberta was not permitted to use tabulators in this event, particularly given this remarkable number of ballots," said Archer.

“That technology is not complicated. It’s been widely used in many contexts and is a safe, reliable, less expensive and more accurate way of counting ballots.”Archer said he’s impressed at the "mammoth effort" by elections officers to count all of the referendum ballots. But he added that tabulators could have led to results being completely counted within a couple hours of polls closing, as well as reduced labour costs for Elections Alberta.

"There is something to be said for getting that count done as quickly as possible and putting to rest some uncertainty about the results,” said Archer.

Elections Alberta expected long count Elections Alberta is required by legislation to count referendums with seven or more ballots within 48 hours. But after missing that mark this week, the elections agency said Alberta’s legislation is “silent on consequences.”Hand counting takes longer than using tabulators, Elections Alberta said, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how much of a difference it makes. In Elections Alberta's current process, teams of elections officers work together to count and re-count 150 ballots at a time.

Spokesperson Michelle Gurney said on Wednesday elections officers were working in shifts around the clock since voting closed, and the count is going as expected given the large scale of the referendum.

“We've said in the months leading up to this that it would take a long time to report these results,” said Gurney.

“This is a hand count of a lot of ballots. And so it's really interesting that folks are asking us what's going wrong. From our point of view, this is going exactly as expected.”Tabulators also banned at local level The referendum is the second time in the past year Alberta voters have waited past election night for all ballots to be counted. In last fall’s municipal election, results were still being counted in some parts of the province two days later. The province banned the use of tabulators at the local level in 2024, even though some cities had been using tabulators for years.

Prepare to wait in some Alberta municipalities as ballots counted by hand this election Edmonton city councillor wants tabulators back after elections report highlights issues Alberta Municipalities president Dylan Bressey said his organization will advocate ahead of the next scheduled local elections in 2029 for municipalities to once again be allowed to use tabulators. He noted the technology merely counts votes, operating like scantron tests often used in high schools or post-secondary institutions.

"We have heard from many, many, many cities across the province that they spent more money and took more time to count votes last municipal election,” said Bressey. “We still have not seen any data that has supported any of those changes." He stressed he doesn’t claim provincial elections need tabulators, as he only advocates for local elections.