Return to the Writ, Assessment Activities & Upcoming Deadlines
Return to the Writ
Yesterday, the province’s 61 Returning Officers completed the Return to the Writ process. This means they confirmed the elected candidate and signed the official Writ of Election and officially returned it to the Chief Electoral Officer. For this election, our ROs provided me with electronic copies of these documents before sending the hard copies back via courier or personal delivery to our head office.
Once I had official confirmation on all 61 elected candidates, I met with the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly and provided a formal letter listing the Members for Saskatchewan’s 30th Legislative Assembly. With this process now complete, the Writ period for this election is now over. While there is still significant work to be completed on the political finance side, the end of the Writ period marks a transition point for my team.
Assessment Activities
As has been the case in the past two general elections, Elections Saskatchewan is sponsoring an Administrative Review of the 30th general election. This review helps us understand what worked well, and what can be improved for future elections. Information from this review is published in Volume II of the Chief Electoral Officer’s Report on the election.
In addition to data already collected or currently being collected, this project also seeks information from political parties through their Chief Official Agents, as well as from candidates and their financial agents. Over the next several weeks, the researchers (Dr. Keith Archer and Dr. Jim Farney) will be reaching out to conduct telephone interviews with the Chief Official Agent of each party that ran candidates in the election, as well as with a limited number of candidates. In addition, in late January or early February, a survey will be sent to the financial agent for each of the candidates. We ask that if you are asked to participate in this process, you do so to help improve our processes. We also ask that you encourage others in your party to share their thoughts and experiences if contacted.
Reminder of Filing Deadlines
Finally, another reminder about three RPP/candidate expense return deadlines:
Dr. Michael Boda
Chief Electoral Officer
Province of Saskatchewan