(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Dawson Thompson

Every Ballot Counts

Sask. Elections provides info on voting deadlines amid COVID-19 and ballot counts

Oct 22, 2020 | 4:14 PM

Due to the current pandemic, vote-by-mail has become a more viable option to the public. Vote-by-mail began in August, with 61,000 people across the province applying for the service. The deadline to submit mail-in-ballots was Oct. 15.

During a press conference on Thursday, Chief Electoral Officer of Saskatchewan, Michael Boda said they did everything they could under legislation to push the deadline back further.

“We also anticipated there would be people who might have COVID-19, or a contact of COVID-19. We wanted to be able to serve them, but we had to serve them in the context of being able to adapt to legislation because I do not have the authority to change the legislation,” Boda said.

“Essentially, we were able to extend the vote-by-mail by another five days until Oct. 20.”

Boda added the reason they were only able to extend the deadline an extra five days is because all ballots have to be submitted on time for the election.

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“Saskatchewan is a very large place. By legislation we have to have those ballots into the system by 8 p.m. on Oct. 26,” Boda said. “It takes time, once the application was completed at the deadline, then we have to go through the process of getting ballots out to the individuals, and then they are able to cast the ballot and they have to get it back into the system by 8 p.m. on Oct. 26.

“I wish I could change the system to do magical things,” he said. “But I am not capable of doing that because I do not have the legislative authority. We have extended this as far as we possibly can to ensure everyone can have a chance at voting for the election.”

The first preliminary count will start the evening of Oct. 26. Ballots from advance voting, election day and personal care facilities are counted.

The second preliminary count will start on Oct. 28 and will be counted each day until completed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. These ballots will be counted in Regina. Vote by mail ballots received by Oct. 26 are counted.

Lastly, the third preliminary count will start on Nov. 7 and will be counted each day until completed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The final count will include vote-by-mail ballots received after Oct. 26, In-person absentee ballots cast at returning offices, hospital, remand, and temporarily displaced voters ballots, and extraordinary voting ballots.

Final results will be produced after the third preliminary count.

Senior director of outreach and communications for Elections Saskatchewan, Tim Kydd told the press it is possible we may not know the winners of some constituencies on the night of Oct. 26. He sighted the British Columbia election in 2017 as an example, where final results for some seats took several weeks to be determined.

“While this is new to Saskatchewan, it is definitely not unprecedented and we are preparing well in advance,” Kydd said.

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Dawson.thompson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: dawsonthompson8