October 28, 2020. The Second Preliminary Count of ballots for Saskatchewan’s 29th General Election has been adjourned for October 28. Counting will pick up tomorrow at 9 a.m. where it left off. All vote by mail ballot boxes are stored in a locked facility until counting resumes.
This count consists of all vote by mail ballots received up until 8 p.m. on election day. Constituency break down of that list: www.elections.sk.ca/media/constituency-vote-margins-vote-by-mail-counting/
Elections Saskatchewan began counting 48 of 61 constituencies today as part of this initial round of vote by mail counting, with 36 of those completed today. Counting for those that were not completed today will continue in the morning while other constituencies not yet started will begin.
Here is a new table of the 36 constituencies completed today:
www.elections.sk.ca/media/vote-by-mail-counting-summary-for-october-28/
“Counting ballots for eight hours is a challenge for any election official,” says Dr. Michael Boda, Chief Electoral Officer of Saskatchewan. “We’ll adjourn for the evening and restart in the morning to help ensure the highest levels of accuracy and integrity.”
“Priority was given to the 18 constituencies where the current vote margin is less than the total number of vote by mail packages mailed out. Many of these are large ballot boxes so if the counting didn’t finish today, these races remain our top priority tomorrow.”
Elections Saskatchewan is counting these vote by mail ballots using a central counting process. Twenty-six teams of election officials are working in parallel, and registered political parties and candidates can provide representatives to observe the process. The constituencies most likely to be impacted by the results of this count have been prioritized and are being counted. Each constituency is counted by one team of election officials, which consists of a deputy returning officer and election clerk.
Results are being updated throughout the day here:
https://results.elections.sk.ca/
The number you see in the Counted column on the far right of the results page has been distributed accordingly to the candidate totals on the left side of the results page.
Before ballot counting started, all candidate representatives observing the process signed an Oath or Declaration of Secrecy. They swore that they would maintain the absolute secrecy of the voting that took place.
Since 8 p.m. on election day, Elections Saskatchewan has received and approved (as of noon on October 28) 3,857 additional vote by mail ballots. These ballots will be counted at the Final Count, beginning Saturday, November 7. The Final Count will also include in-person ballots cast at returning offices, hospital, remand and temporarily displaced voter ballots, and extraordinary voting ballots. Vote by mail ballots returned after the deadline of Noon on November 5 will not be counted.
Elections Saskatchewan (ESK) is the province’s nonpartisan election management body and an independent office of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. ESK directs and supervises the administration of provincial electoral events, including the 2020 provincial election.
Information for voters, workers, media, candidates and parties at www.elections.sk.ca.
For more information contact:
Tim Kydd
Senior Director, Outreach & Communications
Elections Saskatchewan
306.537.9211
[email protected]