Electoral Process

The electoral process - the manner in which electors, organized into constituencies, elect representatives from a slate of candidates - is a vital aspect of a political democracy. The participants who interact in the process are the appointed election officials, registered political parties, candidates and their respective election personnel and the voting public and the media. Election legislation, including any regulations, prescribed election forms, electoral processes and procedures and electoral financing, primarily defines the electoral process. The Election Act, 1996 (Saskatchewan), as amended, governs the application of Saskatchewan's electoral rules. This Act is the authoritative source and the constant reference point behind the execution of key events in the election process.

"First Past the Post"

Saskatchewan, like its counterparts in the rest of Canada, has adopted a "first past the post" type of electoral system. This kind of system means that candidates vie with each other for election within the boundaries of a specific geographic territory, called a constituency, and that the candidate with the most votes within that constituency becomes elected. In practice, where there are more than two candidates per constituency, the winner often is elected with support of fewer than fifty (50) percent of the voters. The winner is the candidate achieving the highest vote. It is not necessary that the winner receive a majority of all votes cast. With such a system it is possible to form a government with less than majority support and even with a lower aggregate voter support than that of an opposing party.

Provincial Constituency Boundaries

Saskatchewan's current constituency boundaries were enacted in 2002 under The Representation Act, 2002 (Saskatchewan), based on the recommendations of the Constituency Boundaries Commission, 2002 (the "2002 Commission"), as established under The Constituency Boundaries Act, 1993 (Saskatchewan). The 2002 Commission recommended the establishment of fifty-eight (58) provincial constituencies inclusive of two (2) northern constituencies and fifty-six (56) southern constituencies of equal voter size. Each constituency is further divided into polling subdivisions of approximately 300 electors. A voters' list is prepared and a polling location is established for each subdivision. There are 2,722 enumerated polling subdivisions (2,561 regular and 161 personal care facilities) in the Province.

Election Officials

Central electoral administration is the responsibility of the Chief Electoral Officer with regional operational conduct of electoral events being the responsibility of constituency returning officers. As a representative of the Office, the constituency returning officer serves as the principal election official within the constituency responsible for the administration, conduct, and reporting of electoral proceedings (general or by-elections, referendums and plebiscites).

Administrative responsibilities relate to management, personnel training and liaison with constituency associations, registered political parties, electoral candidates and members of the public. The duties for which a constituency returning officer is responsible include, among other things, the establishment and maintenance of polling subdivisions within the constituency, the recruitment, appointment and training of subordinate election officials (i.e., election clerk, enumerators, deputy returning officers, poll clerks, etc.), the planning and conduct of enumeration, advance polling and election day voting, the effective communication with the general public, the media and political stakeholders in the electoral process and the receipt of candidate nomination and election finance documentation.

Voter Registration

An essential element of any electoral system is the identification of eligible electors. In Saskatchewan, a qualified elector must be eighteen years of age or more, a Canadian citizen on or before voting day, an ordinary resident in Saskatchewan for at least six months preceding the day when the election was called, and an ordinary resident in the constituency in which he or she intends to vote.

British subjects (other than Canadian citizens) who meet the aforementioned requirements are also entitled to vote if they were qualified electors at the time of the Saskatchewan provincial general election held on June 23, 1971.

Persons convicted within the five years prior to voting of corrupt practices, as defined in The Election Act, are ineligible to vote.

Enumeration

In Saskatchewan, eligible electors are identified by an enumeration which entails an election official, called an enumerator, visiting or contacting them, determining whether or not they meet the eligibility criteria, and, if so, entering their names, addresses and other information on lists which are then transformed into voters' lists. Poll officials, political parties and candidates use these lists to ensure that only qualified electors vote. The parties and candidates also utilize them for campaigning purposes. An enumeration system entails an active search for eligible electors initiated by the election machinery and poll officials.

Candidate's Representatives

Participation of candidates' representatives at the polling stations is an integral part of the conduct of an election. Although not election officials, they are entitled to observe, to comment and report on the process of the voting and counting and to require any elector to take a written declaration of entitlement to vote before being given a ballot. Their role is crucial to maintaining public confidence in the fairness of the electoral process and of the result. Such appointments must be made in writing by the candidate, of one or more voters or Saskatchewan residents who are Canadian Citizens and who are 14 years of age or older, to be present and to represent him or her, in addition to or in place of himself or herself at the polling locations.

Court Proceedings

Under the Election Act, a constituency returning officer, upon request by any candidate or any candidate's business manager, is legislated to apply to the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench (the "Court") to ask the Court to undertake a judicial recount where, after final count, the margin of victory is less than the total number of all unopened envelopes, rejected ballots and ballots objected to. In addition, after final count, if the returning officer declares a result to be a tie vote pursuant to section 148 of The Election Act, any of the candidates having the same number of votes or the business manager of any of those candidates is entitled to request a recount or an addition.

Press and Electronic Media

While the press and the electronic media have their self-given role to play during an election, that of informing the public about political and democratic issues and of each political party's position concerning those issues, they also have several statutorily imposed roles. One, pursuant to federal broadcast law, is to provide a certain amount of free advertising or campaign time to each registered political party, as well as to fairly allocate paid advertising time to each party or candidate. The other, pursuant to the Election Act, is to record the use of their advertising and publishing facilities during election periods by the registered political parties, candidates and by government departments and agencies and to report on such use to the Chief Electoral Officer. Such information can then be used to determine whether or not access to the media was accorded fairly and, in the case of government advertising, to determine whether or not the governing registered political party has misused its control of government departments to publish advertising that might unfairly benefit the governing party in an election.