30th Electoral Cycle Communique for Chief Official Agents, Issue Sixteen

Revised CEO Directives

Revised CEO Directives

On August 18, I provided you with an update on the status of my proposed CEO Directives after an appearance before the Board of Internal Economy (the Board) earlier that week. You’ll recall that at that meeting, the Board had rejected three of my proposed CEO Directives (Electronic Poll Books/Voting Record, Vote Counting Equipment & Vote Anywhere) while accepting three others (Polling Divisions, Polling Period and Vote by Mail).

Following that meeting, I agreed to provide the Board with amended CEO Directives that would allow a form of electoral modernization to move forward without the use of vote counting equipment. Devising this system proved somewhat challenging and resulted in revisions to the three CEO Directives that were approved the Board and substantial modification to the Electronic Poll Books/Voting Record directive. In addition, as we were making changes to the existing Directives, we identified an additional Directive was needed. Earlier this week, I provided the Board with the following CEO Directives:   

  • [REVISED] Polling Divisions (CEO Directive 2023-009): Directs changes to the traditional use of geographic sub-regions.
  • [REVISED] Polling Period (CEO Directive 2023-010): Authorizes a transition away from distinct advance and election day voting periods toward a unified “Voting Week.”
  • [REVISED] Electronic Poll Books/Voting Record (CEO Directive 2023-011): Introduces technology to make it faster and easier to process an increased number of voters while enabling real time data sharing with political stakeholders. Also implements the voting record form and modifies the traditional duties of the poll clerk.
  • [REVISED] Vote by Mail (CEO Directive 2023-014): Continues use of the centralized Vote by Mail process developed for Saskatchewan’s 29th General Election, held on October 26, 2020.
  • [NEW] HRT Counting (CEO Directive 2023-018): Amends vote counting procedures to allow for a central count of hospital/remand and temporarily displaced voter ballots.

I have attached copies of these CEO Directives along with a copy of the cover letter I provided to the Speaker. The cover letter includes details on what has changed within each CEO Directive and also, what the election that we are preparing to administer will look like throughout the province.

If you have questions or comments on anything that you read, I would be pleased to speak with you.

By-Election Voters Lists

Voters lists for the three by-election (Lumsden-Morse, Regina Coronation Park and Regina Walsh Acres) constituencies are now available for download from our FTP site.

If you have questions or experience any issues accessing the files, please contact Son Lu, A/Director of IT at son.lu@elections.sk.ca.

Sincerely,

Dr. Michael Boda
Chief Electoral Officer
Province of Saskatchewan