Last Two Days of Voting This Week
End of Voting Week
I know that you do not need a final reminder, but we have reached the last two days of voting week. Voting locations are open from 12 noon to 8 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, August 10 in all three constituencies. In Regina Walsh Acres and Regina Coronation Park voting will take place at the same locations on the final day as earlier in the week. In Lumsden-Morse, the same voting locations will remain open, but an additional set of manual voting locations will also open – this ensures that no voter faces an unreasonably long distance to drive in order to vote.
Please remember and remind your supporters and volunteers that there is no voting tomorrow on Wednesday, August 9.
If you would like to see day-by-day turnout figures, you can find them on our website at https://www.elections.sk.ca/2023byelections/.
Our teams, both in the three returning offices and at our head office, have worked very hard to administer these by-elections, introducing technology to polling locations including vote counting machines. I am looking forward to sharing the results of these new processes with you in the coming months.
Second Preliminary Count Information
Consistent with the processes following during the last general election and the previous two by-elections, we will once again hold a Second Preliminary Count of Vote by Mail ballots.
This Count will take place two days after election day, at 1 p.m. on Saturday, August 12 at our head office in Regina (301 – 3303 Hillsdale Street). We will be counting 276 Vote by Mail ballots – 129 from Regina Walsh Acres, 111 from Regina Coronation Park and 36 from Lumsden-Morse.
In our general election, we held this Count for the first time to provide greater certainty to candidates and registered political parties as to the results of the election. In these by-elections, we do not have the same volume of Vote by Mail ballots, but I intend to move ahead with this count so that we can continue to refine our internal processes and procedures with an eye toward the coming general election. The remaining Vote by Mail ballots that we receive (before the August 21 deadline) will be counted at the Final Count on Tuesday, August 22.
Candidate representatives will, of course, be able to view the Second Preliminary Count. Candidates and registered political parties can appoint candidate representatives to observe the counting of ballots. To facilitate this, I have attached an E-417C candidate’s representative appointment form to this Communique.
Please note that our building locks automatically over the weekend so, if you plan to attend, or have a representative attend, please pre-register by emailing [email protected]. In your email, please indicate the name of the observer, which party or candidate they represent and the constituencies they will be interested in observing. The E-417C also asks for this information. The count will begin promptly at 1 p.m.
Administrative Error – Regina Coronation Park
I want to ensure you are aware of an administrative error that occurred on the first day of voting at the St. Peter’s Senior Centre voting location in Regina Coronation Park. When voting ended for the first day of voting, our election officials made an administrative error when shutting down the vote counting machine for the day, with a single-day results tape being printed. This should not have occurred, but we had a process in place for workers to follow in order to remediate the mistake. The remedial process was followed correctly. We spoke with the workers involved to ensure they understood the issue and the poll has since been closed correctly on all other days of voting.
If you have questions about what happened or would like more information on what will occur when the poll is closed this coming Thursday night, please call me. I would be happy to discuss this further.
Dr. Michael Boda
Chief Electoral Officer
Province of Saskatchewan