Saskatchewan gearing up for fall election in face of COVID-19

Saskatchewan is set to break new ground in October.

Barring a snap election call elsewhere in Canada between now and Oct. 26, Saskatchewan will be the first major jurisdiction in the country to hold an election during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re taking this seriously and we’ll continue to do that,” Dr. Michael Boda, Saskatchewan’s chief electoral officer, said Tuesday.

“I will continue to talk about this in the public and there will be a better understanding that we’re doing everything we can to make the polls safer on Oct. 26.”

There are around 800,000 eligible voters in the province. Boda said Elections Saskatchewan is focusing on the health of each of those people as they prepare to cast ballots at more than 1,700 polling locations in 61 constituencies.

“Voting safely is our priority and we have taken a number of steps that will lead to a safer polling location,” Boda said. “For those who may not feel it appropriate for them to come to the polling location, we’re building capacity with respect to being able to vote in other ways.”

Elections Saskatchewan has put in a large order for masks, which will be worn by all of the workers at each of the polling stations. Voters will be encouraged to wear masks as well, but one will be provided to those individuals who show up at a polling station without a mask.

Hand sanitizers and disinfectants also will be prevalent on election day, and the layout of polling stations is being changed so that everyone on hand can practise physical distancing.

“We are doing our due diligence and preparing in such a way — right down to issuing individual pencils that will be discarded after you use them — to ensure that the voting place is safer for voters,” Boda said.

“We want them to come to the polls, assuming that the chief medical health officer says that we can move forward.”

Boda has been in contact with Dr. Saqib Shahab to figure out ways to make voters and employees feel safer during the process.

Elections Saskatchewan is going to increase the number of polls for advance and election-day voting, which would allow voters to face smaller crowds.

It’s also offering people more of an opportunity to vote using an absentee ballot.

“Traditionally, about one per cent of voters have participated using an absentee ballot,” Boda said. “We couldn’t possibly run an all-postal ballot in time for October, so what we’re trying to do is build capacity on the absentee — or the postal — ballot side while increasing the opportunity for advance and election-day polling.”

Everyone who is registered to cast a ballot gets a voter information card in the mail, but even that process is being massaged to make things safer. Voters, Boda said, can sign up to receive an email or text that provides them with the necessary information, thus eliminating the physical exchange of the card.

Work also is being done with regards to the process before election day.

Boda has had discussions with the various political parties about campaign activities, from door-knocking to indoor and outdoor rallies.

Boda and Shahab are working together to develop guidelines for those events and that information will be provided to candidates and their parties.

Saskatchewan may be the first Canadian jurisdiction to stage an election during the pandemic, but it’s not the first in the world.

Boda said Elections Saskatchewan looked at three elections held elsewhere around the globe — one in Wisconsin, one in Australia and one in South Korea — to see how they conducted the process in the face of COVID-19.

“In each case, we learned a great deal from what went well and what did not go well,” Boda said. “What we’re doing is we’re preparing based on what we learned through those three case studies.”