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

Return to the Writ

Return to the Writ

Earlier today, our Returning Officer, Lloyd Howey, returned the Writ of Election and other necessary materials, completing his legislative responsibilities for the Saskatoon Meewasin by-election.

With that information in hand, I have written to the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly and confirmed that Nathaniel Teed has been duly elected to serve as MLA for the constituency of Saskatoon Meewasin. As required by legislation, I will also publish this information in the Saskatchewan Gazette.

Poll-by-Poll Results Available

We have posted a file containing the poll-by-poll results for the Saskatoon Meewasin by-election to our website. This file can be found at: https://www.elections.sk.ca/reports-data/election-results/  along with results from other recent by-elections.

For by-elections, we aim to have poll-by-poll results available to you within about a month of polling day. Please remember that this timeframe does not apply to general elections, where detailed results will continue to take much longer to prepare and make available. 

Key Dates

Please ensure the two deadlines mentioned below are in your calendar and that your candidates and their business managers are aware of them:

  • Tuesday, December 27 – Deadline for candidates to file their by-election expense return. You will see that this is immediately after the Christmas long weekend. I would strongly encourage you to have your candidates and their business managers begin working on their returns as soon as possible and ensure that audited returns will be completed and submitted to us by the deadline. The holiday season will not be a valid reason for a candidate to receive an extension on their expense return and our offices will be closed on December 23 and December 26 for Christmas Day and Boxing Day respectively.
  • Monday, March 27 – Deadline for registered political parties to file their election expense return for the Saskatoon Meewasin by-election

Voters List Updates

Two extracts have been placed onto our secure download portal. The first is the quarterly update file including the final list of electors from the Saskatoon Meewasin by-election. The second file contains just the final list of electors from the Meewasin by-election. If you have any questions about how to access either of these extracts, please contact Jordan Arendt, Director of IT, at jordan.arendt@elections.sk.ca.

Reporting on Pilot Projects

You will remember that we piloted a number of items during the Meewasin by-election (I provided you with details of our pilot projects in my July 15, 2022 Saskatoon Meewasin By-Election Communique). By legislation, I am required to table a report that outlines the alternate procedures, equipment or technology used, and if appropriate, make recommendations with respect to amending legislation to allow the alternate procedures, equipment or technology to be introduced on a permanent basis.

We are currently working on debriefing with the election officials who administered voting during the by-election. Their feedback will help to inform my reporting. Legislation requires my report be issued within six months of polling day (March 26, 2023) and I look forward to sharing these results with you.  

Release of Volume IV

In non-by-election news, on Monday, October 17, I tabled Volume IV in A Report on the Twenty-Ninth General Election, Chief Electoral Officer’s Recommendations for Legislative Reform with the Legislative Assembly. While I will be sending a hard copy to your office, you can find a PDF at https://cdn.elections.sk.ca/upload/2022.10.13-29th-GE-Volume-IV-v1.0.pdf.

Volume IV offers a vision of what our next election, scheduled for October 28, 2024, could look like if legislators opt to move forward with my recommendations. This vision would include the widespread use of electronic poll books (as we did in the Meewasin by-election), ballot tabulators, a robust Vote by Mail system, and the limited introduction of “Vote Anywhere” locations. A key benefit of these elements, which rely on the introduction of technology to voting locations, is that we will be able to share more and better data with you, our political stakeholders.  

I don’t believe that the contents of Volume IV will be a surprise to you as I offered a preview of what was to come during our summer meeting. 

The release of Volume IV did receive attention from the news media. If you are interested, you can read some of the coverage here:

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.