Sask. Party allows candidate to set up voting stations
But executive director clarifies initiative neither endorsed nor organized by party
Saskatchewan Party leadership candidate Ken Cheveldayoff says voting stations set up across the province by his campaign team will give party members the same level of secrecy as a polling station in a provincial general election.
In an email sent to some supporters this week, Cheveldayoff announced plans to set up a temporary voting station in Moose Jaw.
More announcements followed, and he said plans are in place to set up 40 to 50 in the next three weeks.
“We’re going to make sure, of course, that there will be nobody anywhere near where the actual voting will take place,” the Saskatoon Willowgrove MLA said in a telephone interview Friday morning.
“The vast majority of people have never voted in a preferential ballot system and they’ve never voted where you have to include ID and the like, so we want to make sure everyone, especially senior citizens, are able to get all the help they can get.”
In an email sent to a party member, a copy of which was obtained by the StarPhoenix, Sask. Party executive director Patrick Bundrock said the party received “some questions” about voting stations set up by individual candidates.
In a followup email to the StarPhoenix, Bundrock said while the party’s leadership election rules do not prohibit such stations, Cheveldayoff’s initiative is neither organized nor endorsed by the party.
“The Saskatchewan Party has facilitated secure mail-in voting for each member and has also made arrangements for on-site voting at the leadership convention,” Bundrock wrote in the email.
The party began mailing ballots to its 27,125 members in early December. Under the one-member-one-vote system, voters rank the five candidates, and as candidates are eliminated, the remaining top choices on the ballots are recounted.
Party members who do not vote by mail-in ballot are eligible to vote for Cheveldayoff, Tina Beaudry-Mellor, Alanna Koch, Scott Moe and Gord Wyant at a convention in Saskatoon on Jan. 27, at which the next leader will be revealed.
Voters must bring identification. Volunteers and a photocopier will be available at each site, according to the emails sent this week to Cheveldayoff supporters. The email adds: “We will ensure that your right to vote in private will be respected.”
Cheveldayoff said he got the idea for mobile voting stations from members of his campaign team who worked on Andrew Scheer’s successful bid to lead the federal Conservative party, which employed a similar concept.