Moose Jaw voters head to the polls in byelection

For the second time in just under a year, voters in Moose Jaw will head to the polls Wednesday to decide who will next sit in the mayor’s seat.

Fraser Tolmie won the job during the municipal election in 2020, but the following August, he won the Conservative nomination — and eventually the seat — for the federal Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan riding and stepped away from the mayoral post.

Nine people are on the ballot for the byelection: Crystal Froese, Mike Simpkins, Wayne Watermanuk, Brett McAuley, Sam Morrison, Michael Haygarth, Clive Tolley, Heather Eby and Kim Robinson.

Froese, Eby and Robinson are all currently city councillors, so if any of them win the mayoral seat, Moose Jaw could end up having another byelection to fill the councillor vacancy.

In the advance polls held last week, 2,011 people voted — slightly less than the 2,074 people who voted ahead of time in the 2020 municipal election, and close to twice as many as the 1,224 who voted in the advance polls in 2016. Two thousand and 11 people represents just under eight per cent of the estimated eligible voters in Moose Jaw.

Four polling locations will be open on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. There will be free transit for those voting, with fixed routes extended to 8:30 p.m. for the day.

Masks will be required at polling locations, people will be asked to distance from each other and sanitizing of the spaces will happen through the day.

Results will start rolling out as of 8 p.m. but the unofficial results won’t be announced until Friday morning.