Saskatchewan government votes against electronic vote-counting technology for 2024 provincial election

Electronic vote-counting technology was used in all three of Saskatchewan’s latest byelections, held last week.

Saskatchewan’s chief electoral officer Micheal Boda presented the board of internal economy a list of directives, offering parameters to introduce new technologies to the 2024 general election.

However, Boda says the board rejected the electronic vote counting directive in a meeting Tuesday afternoon.

In a statement to Global News, government house leader Jeremy Harrison says the government does not, and will not, support electronic voting machines for future general elections.

“The position of the Government of Saskatchewan is that a ballot cast by hand should be counted by hand under the supervision of accredited scrutineers.” Harrison said.

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“There is a perception south of the border that there are challenges when you use technology.” Boda said. “A lot of that relates to voting machines. These aren’t voting machines, its voting counting equipment.”

Boda says this technology is being used across Canada and it’s proven to increase integrity while votes are being counted.

“When a person has worked for twelve hours, and then they’re asked to do the hardest thing at the end of the twelve hours and count ballots, we know that is problematic for election officials.”

According to Boda, the introduction of electronic poll books and vote counting machines requires less staff on election days. Elections Saskatchewan requires over twelve thousand people to conduct the electoral process. During the 2020 election, Boda recalls he was begging people to come work.  Boda adds they saw a reduction in workers during the recent byelections.

“In the urban areas, normally we would’ve hired about 150 people and in these byelections we required 29.” Boda said. “Not only are you increasing the integrity of the process by using electronic poll books in tandem with vote counting equipment. You are reducing the human resources that are needed.”

The board has asked Boda to return in the fall with two directives regarding the acceptance of electronic poll books and another making changes to the counting process to account for risks that will arise when not using electronic vote counting machines.