REGINA, April 5, 2016 – A total of 426,706 ballots were counted last evening in determining the preliminary voting results for the April 4 election. By comparison, a total of 403,873 ballots were cast in the 2011 Saskatchewan General Election.
The ballots counted on election night were comprised of:
By legislation, there are some ballots that are not counted until the final, official count on April 16. These include:
“When we posted the results on our website last night, we included all the polls in every constituency,” says Dr. Michael Boda, Chief Electoral Officer of Saskatchewan. “The absentee, hospital and remand polls were included in this list. These polls are recorded as zero until we count these ballots on April 16. We did this to be transparent in accounting for all the ballot boxes to be counted in the election.”
“Understanding voter turnout can be complex. Key to understanding turnout is that in this election we registered 150,000 more eligible voters than we did in 2011. Simply put, the denominator in the calculation of voter turnout is significantly larger because we have gotten much better at registering voters.”
“So the percentage turnout of 57 per cent is a lower number than the 67 per cent calculation in 2011, even though more people voted this election.”
Elections Saskatchewan is the province’s independent, impartial, professional election management body. Given a mandate from the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly, it organizes, manages and oversees provincial electoral events, including the April 4, 2016 general election. Information for voters, workers, media, candidates and parties at www.elections.sk.ca.
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For more information contact:
Tim Kydd
Senior Director, Outreach & Policy
Elections Saskatchewan
306.537.9211
[email protected]