Sask. Party leadership vote comes down to messy ballot tallying
There was always a high likelihood there would be issues, no matter how the Saskatchewan Party chose to pick its next leader.
And the image of Sask. Party headquarters staffers verifying and counting ballots into the wee hours of tomorrow morning may not exactly ease concerns in the minds of some.
On the upside, it could be worse. Yes, this mail-in ballot process is fraught with potential problems and should likely be replaced by electronic balloting. But anything beats the traditional delegate format we’ve seen in Saskatchewan and elsewhere.
What the Sask. Party has opted for beats images of teenagers being bused into conventions with little or no understanding of where they were or why, but with instructions to vote for certain candidates. This especially plagued Saskatchewan Liberal provincial leadership races and even federal constituency nominations (see: Tony Merchant vs. Ralph Goodale, circa 1993) of a few decades past.
Nor has the current Sask. Party leadership balloting process been plagued with accusations similar to the NDP’s 2009 provincial leadership contest, in which a representative of Dwain Lingenfelter’s camp signed up 1,000 people from three northwest Saskatchewan First Nations — sometimes without their knowledge or own signatures.
No such accusations have come forward in this Sask. Party leadership contest. Given that the camps have been accusing each other of just about anything else, one suspects the slightest whiff of impropriety would have leaked out by now.
But after one accepts the reality that the public just doesn’t get to vote for the leader in our Westminster Parliament model of democracy, the next reality one needs to accept is that any internal party balloting process is going to be very messy.
For starters, there was bound to be a problem of managing expectations stemming from the announcement of a record 27,125 memberships sold. The problem now is, it’s possible only half that total have filled in a ballot.
Sask. Party executive director Patrick Bundrock noted “the numbers will be very comparable,” to the 55 per cent ballot return in the recent federal Conservative race that elected Regina-Qu’Appelle MP Andrew Scheer over 13 other candidates.
Transposing that 55 per cent federal Conservative ballot uptake, Saskatchewan’s 15th premier will be elected by 14,800 of the Sask. Party’s 27,125 current membership — a sizable number, but one that will have some calling into question the decision to go with a mail-in ballot in the first place.
Then comes the reality of how precious each and every one of those ballots are to the outcome of this race.
The Sask. Party has gone to great lengths to try and ensure that every ballot will count.
The mail-in cutoff isn’t until 5 p.m. Friday. “I believe the whole (counting) process will take about 12 hours,” Bundrock said. The scene is set for what will be a long and gruelling night that may not end until 5 a.m. Saturday. And that’s only part of the headache.
The party has made arrangements for last-minute drop-offs at Prairieland Park in Saskatoon (where the convention is being held) and at their Regina headquarters. There is the option of in-person balloting right up until 4 p.m. on Saturday. Again, the perceived closeness of this race means it’s conceivable the new premier could very well be determined by those last ballots filled in on the convention floor.
And while representatives from MNP (the accounting firm previously known as Myers Norris Penny) are there to oversee the ballots every step of the way, this hasn’t avoided questions on how the ballots have already been handled.
For instance, the party’s decision to permit (but not endorse) candidates’ polling stations like the ones Ken Cheveldayoff ’s camp organized.
And as recently as this week, newly minted Sask. Party Kindersley candidate Ken Francis volunteered in the most neighbourly way imaginable to take local ballots with him down to Regina. The pitfalls in this process seem endless. Pity the party organizers.
If controversy heats up Saturday, we may be hearing more about all of the above.