Unofficial results show incumbent Blaine Hyggen returning as Lethbridge mayor

All 20 polls for Lethbridge have reported, and they place incumbent Blaine Hyggen as mayor-elect.

Unofficial results for Lethbridge’s civic election were released Tuesday night.

Hyggen received 7,591 votes.

Meanwhile, 6,716 went to Ryan Mennie, 1,864 went to Quentin Carlson and 698 went to Michael Petrakis.

Hyggen served two terms as a city councillor, elected in 2013 and 2017.

He ran for mayor and won in 2021.

As of Tuesday at 10 p.m., votes were still being counted for the city councillor and school trustee races.

Those updates, as well as other results from the municipal election, can be found at lethbridge.ca/election.

Results become official Friday at noon.

This year’s election saw a major drop in voter turnout.

Only 17,000 people cast a ballot—about 19 per cent of eligible voters.

In 2021, voter turnout was 35 per cent.

“The big thing that changed this time around is the rules that the provincial government put in surrounding municipal elections, and I think that many people, after looking at this result, are in fact going to be asking a question, or saying, ‘If it ain’t broke, why fix it?’” said retired University of Lethbridge political scientist Trevor Harrison.

“We’ve been trying to get more and more people to come out. These rules have to be cited as probably the main cause for why such a precipitous drop has occurred.”