CEO Directives for Pending By-Elections
Additional CEO Directive – By-Elections
Under section 5.1 of The Election Act, 1996 (the Act), the Chief Electoral Officer has the authority to direct the use of “an alternate procedure, equipment or technology” during the administration of a by-election. On April 20, I sent you copies of 7 CEO By-Election Directives that will be in force during our pending events. During the upcoming by-elections, all of which must be administered no later than September 28, 2023 (although two have earlier “deadlines”), I have determined that I must issue an additional Directive.
By CEO Directive, I am directing the following:
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Vote Counting Equipment – Ballot Count Confirmation (CEO By-Election Directive 2023-008): Authorizes a process whereby the accuracy of vote counting equipment will be confirmed by a manual inspection of ballots. Candidates or their representatives will be able to observe this inspection. |
I look forward to sharing more information with parties and candidates on this process after the by-elections are called and we verify times and dates.
I also want to ensure that there is no confusion between the attached CEO By-Election Directive, which relates to our pending by-elections, and the CEO General Directive I sent to you yesterday. I would have preferred to leave more time between these two submissions, but the need to prepare for the general election and the four-week window between when my by-election directives must be submitted and when they become in effect, meant that both needed to be sent to you as soon as possible. In the interests of clarity, I have designated the enclosed document as a “CEO By-Election Directive,” and will use that language when referring to this set of Directives moving forward.
Please feel free to be in touch if you have comments or questions. I would be happy to speak with you.
Dr. Michael Boda
Chief Electoral Officer
Province of Saskatchewan