Final Count Information
Final Count – Saturday, November 9
By legislation, the Final Count is held twelve days after the Last Day of Voting; for this election, that date is Saturday, November 9. The Final Count will take place in 61 constituency returning offices and in a central location in Regina. Below, I outline what will happen in these locations, what votes will be counted, and our approximate timelines.
Final Count – Returning Offices
A Final Count will be conducted in each constituency returning office beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, November 9. A candidate and one candidate representative, or two candidate representatives, may attend.
At the Final Count in the Returning Office:
Any candidate representatives who attend the Final Count must be able to produce an E-417 appointment form – a copy can be found at https://www.elections.sk.ca/candidates-political-parties/forms-and-guides/.
Every person in attendance for the Final Count in the returning office will need to complete an Oath of Secrecy as well. Although the Count will begin promptly at 9 a.m., candidates and representatives do not need to attend the start of the Final Count, nor are they required to stay for the entire duration. A candidate representative can also leave for a portion of the Count and then rejoin, but the Final Count will proceed regardless.
Final Count – Vote by Mail & HRT
As with the Second Preliminary Count, the Final Count of Vote by Mail ballots will take place at the Conexus Arts Centre in Regina, beginning at 9 a.m. on November 9 (in the Shumiatcher Room – same as the Second Preliminary Count). You can expect much the same for arrangements – 16 constituencies being counted at one time. For this election, as a result of change made in CEO Directive 2023-018, all Hospital, Remand and Temporarily Displaced (HRT) ballots will be counted centrally as well in conjunction with VBM ballots. For clarification, no Temporarily Displaced polls were set up for this election, so there are no votes to be counted in that category.
The process of appointing candidate representatives to observe this portion of the Final Count will differ slightly from what we did for the Second Preliminary Count. On Thursday, November 7, before 5 p.m., we will email you, as Chief Official Agent, and ask which constituencies you are interested in assigning a candidate representative to observe. We will need a complete list back by 12 noon on November 8. If possible, we will count both VBM and HRT ballots from these constituencies in the first batch that are processed.
Final Count – Embargo Agreement for RPPs
During the Final Count, I would like to operate under the same Embargo agreement as we did during the Second Preliminary Count. This preserves trust and ensures that nothing is reported publicly until information and numbers are verified.
There is one change in our results reporting that you should be aware of – rather than updating our results website throughout the day, it will be updated only once, at the end of the Final Count, after all votes have been counted and returning officers have confirmed all results in their constituency offices.
For any constituencies which could still mathematically switch from one candidate to another during the Final Count, we will issue news releases once all results from VBM and HRT counts are known, and numbers are final.
If you have any concerns or questions about this agreement or our plans for releasing result information, please reach out to me directly.
Recount Information
When the Final Count ends, we enter a period during which candidates can request or apply for recounts.
Recounts when Automatically Entitled
A recount will be automatically granted if a request is made by a candidate or their financial agent under the following two circumstances:
The Election Act, 1996 refers to the two above scenarios as “automatic” recounts – see section 155 of the Act for more information. A request for an automatic recount is made using Form E-151 (attached) and must be made within four days of the Final Count, or before the end of the day on Wednesday, November 13.
Our returning offices do not have public office hours after the last day of voting and our main office will be closed on Sunday, November 10 and on Monday, November 11 for Remembrance Day. However, in order to facilitate the automatic recount process, if one of your candidates (or their financial agent) intends to request an automatic recount, please have them contact Jennifer Colin, Deputy CEO, at [email protected] or 306.787.4061. We will work with them, and with you, to ensure the documents are served to the returning officer within the time frame.
Application when Not Automatically Entitled
There are also circumstances where a candidate or financial agent can apply to a judge of the Court of King’s Bench for a recount or addition. These are:
In circumstances where a candidate is not entitled to request an automatic recount, the application must be made to the Court of King’s Bench within ten days of the returning officer declaring a candidate to be elected. Refer to section 156 for more information. I have been in contact with the Registrar of the Court of King’s Bench to clarify how applications for recounts or additions should be managed.
In the case of an application for a recount by a candidate or their financial agent pursuant to section 156 of the Act, the application may be made by Application without Notice using Form 6-4 (this is a form available from the Court, not from Elections Saskatchewan), together with an affidavit setting out the facts in support of the application. The application:
While the application may be made without notice, the applicant should serve a copy of the application and affidavit on the returning officer and the other candidates or their financial agent, who may, if they wish, object to the application by filing an affidavit at the courthouse. My office could assist with this as needed.
Security of Voters Lists
The Election Act, 1996 requires that the Chief Electoral Officer take all reasonable steps to protect against unauthorized use of a voters’ list. When you, or an authorized representative requested access to the list, you signed a declaration to protect, secure and/or destroy the list of electors. I want to stress the importance of the commitment that was made and ask that you follow through on this.
I would also ask that you remind your candidates of their responsibility to collect and destroy any copies of the voters list used during their campaign. All candidates, or their representative, were required to sign the same declaration to protect, secure and/or destroy the voters list provided to them. This responsibility extends to campaign workers and volunteers who may have been provided with a copy of the list.
Reminders – Filing Dates
Finally, just a short reminder about three RPP/candidate expense return deadlines:
Dr. Michael Boda
Chief Electoral Officer
Province of Saskatchewan