With one week to go until election day, thousands of Edmontonians have already decided who they want as their next mayor, city councillor and school trustee.
More Edmonton voters turned out each day over the course of the advance voting last week than in 2021, according to Edmonton Elections.
The total number of advance voters was around 41,340 over five days this past week, with more than 10,600 Edmontonians voting on Saturday, the last advance day to do so.
In 2021, when advance voting ran for 10 days from Oct. 4 to 13, the city said 63,938 Edmontonians cast their ballot.
While the number of days to vote was half as long this time around, the numbers broke down to an average of 8,200 a day — compared to 6,400 in 2021.
For those who have not yet voted, a former city councillor says these final seven days are critical.
“This week is all about get out the vote,” said Kim Krushell, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2021 after serving as a city councillor for three consecutive terms from 2004 to 2013.
Krushell said in the last week of the campaign, many candidates go door to door to drum up support and keep track of who promised to support them. The former politician said candidates will also be making sure supporters have signs and getting messages out to remind people when election day is.
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Many candidates were out knocking on doors this Thanksgiving weekend.
“Every day counts. There’s no such thing as a holiday in an election situation because you have to get out there and you need to get every vote you can,” Krushell said.
“It’s a name recognition campaign. The more your name is known, the more people are potentially gonna vote for you. So it makes it even tougher for those candidates that have no name recognition. They’ve got tp work even harder than those that do.”
More and more, social media is playing into campaigning, she noted. One mayoral candidate, dental surgeon Omar Mohammad, has zero political experience but has captured a following by standing out online. Krushell noted it’s a good strategy.
“With social media, you can do different things, so that part doesn’t surprise me. It does surprise me that he’s getting as much traction, but clearly his social media team is really good.
“They’re getting out there, they’re doing it in a way that is connecting with voters out there.”
It’s one thing to like or share a fun video or hit a follow button, but Krushell said it’s another thing to actually show up to cast a ballot.
“People tend to vote for who they know, so it really depends on how much Mohammad has connected with those potential voters. I think he’s connected probably more with young voters than he has with the more established older voters — and tradition tells us that older voters tend to vote. Younger voters, unfortunately, don’t tend to go to the polls as often.”
Krushell suspects the mayoral race will be tight between Tim Cartmell and Andrew Knack, two current city councillors shown in polling to be the frontrunners. They have equal name recognition, she said, but are pulling support for different reasons and from opposite ends of the political spectrum.
“It really depends on how people are upset with taxes. I think those are the meat and potato issues that are gonna really factor. So if that’s what their concerns are, Tim might have an edge. If their concern is more that I don’t wanna have cuts to my services, then I think Andrew Knack would have an edge.
“So it’s gonna be a dog’s breakfast in terms of who’s gonna get elected. I think it’s gonna be a tight race, potentially.”
Thirteen people are running for mayor in Edmonton, but only one will come out victorious next week. Krushell said that shouldn’t deter people from stepping up, adding that a healthy list of candidates is good for democracy.
“I’m just glad to see that people are stepping up and that you do have a lot of different candidates to choose from,” Krushell said.
“We need people to run, and when you’re running, you have to understand that you can lose. It’s not like you have a mindset that you’re gonna lose, but you have to be realistic.
“But it’s still important to get your voice and your ideas out there.”
Election Day is Oct. 20.
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