CEO releases paper outlining vision for future elections

August 11, 2021 – Saskatchewan’s Chief Electoral Officer has released a paper offering a vision for what voting in future elections could look like.

“Our last election (held on October 26, 2020) took place in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic,” says Dr. Michael Boda, Chief Electoral Officer of Saskatchewan. “COVID-19 has shown us that there is an appetite and willingness to change many aspects of our society, including how we vote. We need to take deliberate steps to broaden access to the ballot and to make our system more efficient while also preserving necessary security and integrity features.”

The paper, entitled Modernizing Saskatchewan’s Provincial Voting Experience – Voting Services Modernization for Saskatchewan’s 30th General Election can be found on the Elections Saskatchewan website under Reports & Data or here at www.elections.sk.ca/VoterServicesModernizationPaper. The paper includes ideas and topics that will be expanded upon in Volume IV in A Report on the Twenty-Ninth General Election, Chief Electoral Officer’s Recommendations for Legislative Reform, expected to be published in the spring of 2022.

Proposed changes to Saskatchewan’s voting processes, outlined within the paper, relate to three broad categories:

  1. Moving from “Election Day” to “Election Period”
  2. Modernizing Election Processes and Administration including the use of e-poll books and tabulators
  3. Broadening Access to Voting.

“I firmly believe that change must come to how Saskatchewan administers its elections,” says Dr. Boda. “This paper was a first step in modernizing our voting experience – I look forward to discussing its contents with key stakeholders and making recommendations to legislators for legal changes that will allow our system to modernize.”

Saskatchewan’s next general election is scheduled, by legislation, for October 28, 2024.

Elections Saskatchewan (ESK) is the province’s nonpartisan election management body and an independent office of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. ESK directs and supervises the administration of provincial electoral events. Information for voters, workers, media, candidates, and parties at www.elections.sk.ca.

For more information contact:

Tim Kydd
Senior Director, Outreach & Communications
Elections Saskatchewan
306.537.9211
tim.kydd@elections.sk.ca