Elections Saskatchewan is still counting ballots after Monday’s election.
A high volume of mail-in and absentee ballots has caused election workers to start a second preliminary count Wednesday, as well as a final count to take place on Nov. 7.
Chief Electoral Officer Dr. Michael Boda says it could take another week or two to know for sure who has won some seats.
“Because vote-by-mail ballots are still coming in through the mail and because there are other special ballots out there, it’s important to remember that if a race remains tight after the second preliminary count, we won’t know for certain whether they remain in play until just before the final count when the additional ballots to count have been received and are in place for the final count.”
Dr. Boda says Elections Saskatchewan wants the public to know these results can be trusted.
“My goal is really to educate the public on how the count functions and what ballot counting looks like in this context,” Dr. Boda said. “I want (the public) to see there’s a process in place, that it is well organized, that it’s over-seen, and that it’s scrutinized by our stakeholder candidates and political parties.”
Dr. Boda says he’s proud of polling station workers and elections officials for the work they did on election night.
“We knew that some people could not participate for health reasons in this context, and so our numbers were reduced,” Dr. Boda said. “When I went forward and asked for others to come forward that hadn’t been involved in the democratic process before, we saw many, many step up.”
Eight seats — four in Saskatoon, three in Regina and one in Prince Albert — have been deemed too close to call at this time, and could be decided by the mail-in or absentee vote.