[IntenseFan]

Pursuant to the Alberta Election Act, judicial recounts are in the following cases:

1. Tie of two or more candidates (automatically initiated pursuant to section 138 of the Act);

2. Pursuant to the enumerated items in section 144 (initiated on an application to the Court of Queen's Bench by a candidate), which are:

a. Votes were not correctly accepted or rejected; or

b. that a Certificate of Return (which sets out the final official results prepared by the returning officer) does not accurately record the number of votes for a candidate.

EDIT: From my browsing of the Elections Alberta website, seems like the onus is on the candidate to apply under section 144 even where there is a near tie (i.e. one or two votes), claiming that the official results on the Certificate of Return are incorrect. If memory serves, this is different from Federal law, which mandates judicial recounts in the event of a tie, or a very, very close discrepancy.