Medicine Hat voters appear to have re-elected Linnsie Clark — but the result isn’t official yet.

With more than 16,000 ballots counted Monday night under Alberta’s new hand-counting rules, Clark holds a narrow lead over former MLA Drew Barnes, capturing 32.4% of the vote to his 28.2%, according to preliminary results from Elections Medicine Hat.

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That puts Clark ahead by just 749 votes, close enough that full confirmation will depend on the remaining manual tallying expected to finish later this week.

Clark’s first four years in office were marked by open conflict at City Hall, staff resignations, and a series of investigations that led her opponents to call the city government “dysfunctional.”

As CTV News noted ahead of the vote, nearly every challenger pitched their campaigns on restoring order to municipal politics.

Despite that, Clark appears to have edged out her rivals, though with her support sliced nearly in half since her 2021 landslide, when she earned 66.4% of votes. 

Drew Barnes, who represented Medicine Hat for three terms in the Alberta Legislature, first under the Wildrose banner, later the UCP, and finally as an Independent, entered the race as a high-profile contender promising to “bring calm to chaos.”

His campaign tapped into frustration over City Hall infighting, but it wasn’t quite enough to topple the incumbent.

Barnes finished with 5,016 votes, followed by former councillor Kris Samraj at 3,532, former police chief Andy McGrogan at 2,350, Alan Rose with 821, and Mark Fisher with 303.

Early tallies suggest significant turnover on the council.

Incumbent Shila Sharps, who filed the complaint that led to Clark’s sanctions, sits in 24th place out of 39 candidates. Former councillors Robert Dumanowski and Alison Van Dyke are also trailing.

Projected to win seats are Yusuf Mohammed, Ted Clugston, Stuart Young, and Chris Hellman, with fewer than 65 votes separating the remaining contenders for the final positions.

Under Alberta’s manual-counting law, final official results may not be certified for several days.

For now, the numbers point to a narrow second term for Linnsie Clark, one that begins with a sharply reduced mandate and a likely new cast of councillors around the table.