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

Accessing Data & Confirming Party Info

Accessing Data

You will know from my Communique dated July 15 that we are planning to deliver an advance voting experience in the upcoming Saskatoon Meewasin by-election that will be very different from previous events. Workers at advance voting locations will process voters using laptop computers which makes it possible for Elections Saskatchewan to share strike off data with you via an SFTP site. Information about voters who have applied to vote by mail and by homebound voting will also be available through the SFTP site.

There will be three different cumulative extracts:

  1. A first extract will include voters who were on the voters list and have been struck off as having voted. It will include the ESK voter ID, the date the voter was struck and the voting channel (advance, homebound or Vote by Mail). 
  2. A second extract will include information on voters who registered or updated their information in conjunction with voting. In addition to the data fields contained in the first extract, this second extract will also include the newly registered or updated voter’s name and address details. 
  3. A final extract will be informational only and include information on voters who have applied to vote by mail. This one will include the same information that you received in the 2020 general election including the mailed date and the received date for those voters who mail their kit back. However, because a voter who has applied to vote by mail will no longer be struck from the list when their kit is mailed (changed to when the kit is received back to allow voters who do not receive their kit or who change their mind to vote in person without having to complete a declaration), the voter will also appear on one of the first two extracts as being struck from the list when we receive their kit back. 

All extracts will be placed onto a secure file sharing site for you to access. Our current plan is to generate one extract every 24 hours during the time between the issuance of the writ and the day before advance voting. During advance voting, files will be produced and shared every 15 minutes while voting takes place. After advance voting and through the Final Count, a new file will be produced every 24 hours. All files will be cumulative, meaning you do not need to retrieve every file. 

In addition to the above extracts, you will also be able to access a portal that will provide real-time access to the activity dashboard. The dashboard will show Turnout by Constituency, High and Low Turnout by Constituency, and Turnout by Poll Locations. The first two are not relevant for a by-election but are standard dashboard features.

We will be executing some voting simulations on August 16 and 17 which will include producing extracts and placing them on the SFTP site. If you are interested in receiving strike off extracts or accessing the dashboard during these simulations, please contact Jennifer Colin, Deputy CEO at Jennifer.Colin@elections.sk.ca. by end of day Friday, August 12, so that the appropriate user accounts can be set up.

Access to this simulated data will be available to all registered political parties. However, please remember that during a live event this data will only be available to registered political parties that have a candidate nominated in the by-election and have signed an Information Sharing Agreement with my office.

If you have questions about anything related to this topic or if you are interested in receiving strike off extracts or accessing the dashboard during the by-election, please contact Jennifer Colin, Jennifer is also working on a users guide that will be made available to you in the coming weeks.    

Confirm Party Information

Elections Saskatchewan maintains information on the province’s registered political parties on our website. I would ask that you please check the information, specifically party name and abbreviation, that we have online and ensure it is accurate and current. You can find this information here: https://cdn.elections.sk.ca/upload/RPP-Info-for-Website-2022.07.06.pdf.

By legislation, you will still need to complete the section 226 confirmation after the issuance of the writ of election for Meewasin. However, making any needed changes now will likely save you time during the writ period. If you have changes or questions, please contact Jennifer Colin at the email address listed above.

Dr. Michael Boda
Chief Electoral Officer
Province of Saskatchewan