City hopes to speed up voter registry with online system

Voting could be easier than ever before in Regina’s 2024 municipal elections.

In co-ordination with Elections Saskatchewan, Elections Regina is introducing a voter registry list – which encourages residents to update their information online ahead of the November 13 vote.

The move involves a data-sharing agreement with Elections Saskatchewan.

Jim Nicol, city clerk and chief returning officer, told reporters the website will serve as a one-stop shop for both voters and candidates in the races for mayor, council and school boards.

Nicol said it could also help improve voter turnout.

“The increase in voter turnout is going to be a result of our communications efforts – the ease by which people can register to vote,” he said.

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“We can’t magically make the voter turnout go up. Our role and responsibilities (are) to remove those barriers so that people can vote, they know where to vote, how to get the information. We try to make it as easy for people as we can.”

Nicol said turnout for the 2020 municipal election was only around 21 per cent.

He said part of his role is to get people to appreciate the importance of municipal politics.

“People should pay attention, because everybody’s a taxpayer. Everybody benefits from the services we have, whether that’s transit, police, fire, recreation facilities – it all happens here with the decision makers, and so if you want to be part of that or influence those decisions, you need to vote,” Nicol said.

The city clerk said Elections Regina has enhanced its website since the last election.

“We got rave reviews in 2020 from the changes we’ve made,” he said.

“I think we’ve learned from that, we’ve made lots more.”

Nicol explained that if people register and provide an email address, they will receive a message from the office with a QR code that they can take to a polling station along with their ID to help speed up the process.

Elections Regina will use electronic tabulators in the election, which the city has used since 2000. Nicol said they’re accurate, regularly tested, and he’s never experienced any issue with them.

“We’re very confident that they remain accurate, and we’re confident to use them,” he said.

Nicol said there will be 34 polling stations available for November’s election, but it isn’t known yet how many election workers will be helping out. There were fewer than 600 election workers in 2020.

The city will also utilize mail-in ballots.

In order to vote, one has to be a Canadian citizen who is at least 18 years old on the day of the election. Voters must have lived in Saskatchewan for at least six consecutive months and need to have lived in or owned land within Regina for at least three consecutive months.