Saskatoon Meewasin By-Election Communique for Chief Official Agents, Issue Eleven

Preliminary Results & Second Preliminary Count Info

Preliminary Results

Nathaniel Teed of the New Democratic Party (N.D.P.) has gained the most votes following last evening’s First Preliminary Count in Saskatoon Meewasin. The vote count is as follows:

These are only the preliminary results. We will be holding a Second Preliminary Count of Vote by Mail ballots received by September 23 on Wednesday, September 28 (more information below).

On Saturday, October 8, the Final Count will take place, both at the returning office and at our head office in Regina. More information on the Final Count to come next week.

Second Preliminary Count

As mentioned, we will once again be holding a Second Preliminary Count of Vote by Mail (VBM) ballots. During the general election, we implemented this Count due to the large number of VBM ballots that needed to be counted, which otherwise would have been outstanding until the Final Count. The Second Preliminary Count provided additional certainty to candidates, registered political parties, and the voting public earlier than would otherwise have been the case.

As of late last week, we have adjudicated 118 Vote by Mail ballots in advance of this Count, which will begin at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, September 28 at our head office in Regina (#301 – 3303 Hillsdale Street). Our office’s current policy is that we all wear masks when in common areas or meeting rooms and this will apply during the administration of the Second Preliminary Count.  

The process for this Second Preliminary Count will be much simpler than it was for the general election as there is only one constituency being counted. 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. If you, or a representative from your party, would like to attend this Count, please complete the form and email it to Sarah Wright at [email protected]. Ballot counting will begin promptly at 1 p.m. tomorrow.  

Strike Off Information

Right now, workers in our returning office are completing a strike off of election day voters using the barcode found on the new voting record. This is the first time that we have been able to provide this type of data to you and I hope that you find it useful. A cumulative extract of all voters will be upload to your Filezilla SFTP site at midnight tonight.

Also, with the conclusion of the Second Preliminary Count tomorrow afternoon, we will begin adjudicating Vote by Mail ballot packages again in the lead up to the Final Count. This information will be made available once per day and will also be cumulative.

Transparency in introducing new methods

In the context of election administration, technology offers many benefits that allow for greater precision and accuracy in implementing elections. Moving forward, it will also allow us to improve on our administration of electoral events. We are very pleased with what we have observed so far in our piloting of new technology in advance polls during the Meewasin By-Election.

I want to transparent as to what we are learning as part of this by-election because the technology allows us to do just this—more information is available to us. None of what is reported here will have an impact on the outcome of the race or will affect vote totals. In the dashboard, however, you will notice that for the poll listed as YWCA – SMEDR005 that 211 votes are recorded as being cast but only 210 voters have been struck from the list. Early on the first day of advance voting an individual received a ballot without being first struck from the voters list. While we identified the error right away, we were unable to say with certainty which voter was not struck off so could not correct this. This is the reason for the discrepancy.

Another item that you will notice is that the number of votes cast from by-election day will not equal the number of voters struck from the list. This is due to voters who register at the time of voting using a paper form. These voters will not be entered into the Register of Voters until after those paper forms are processed. We will examine this process and see how we could speed up the processing of these registration forms.

Thank you for your continued cooperation. We welcome your questions on what you see in the dashboard and what the information means. I look forward to continuing to work through this with you. 

Upcoming Key Dates

Just a few key dates to add to your calendar:

• Wednesday, September 28 – Second Preliminary Count of Vote by Mail ballots at Elections Saskatchewan head office.
• Saturday, October 8 – Final Count to be held in the Saskatoon Meewasin returning office and at Elections Saskatchewan head office
• Wednesday, October 19 – Return to the Writ for the Saskatoon Meewasin by-election
• Tuesday, December 27 – Deadline for candidates to file their by-election expense return
• Monday, March 27 – Deadline for registered political parties to file their election expense return for the Saskatoon Meewasin by-election

Dr. Michael Boda
Chief Electoral Officer
Province of Saskatchewan

All information related to the Meewasin By-Election can be found online at www.elections.sk.ca/saskatoonmeewasin2022.