Referendum vote results are now official

The official tally is in — and the results are unchanged in the City of Regina’s wastewater referendum.

On Friday, the city released the official results of Wednesday’s vote. The no side remains at 57 per cent (favouring a public-private partnership or P3 project) while 43 per cent voted yes (wanting a traditional, public funding model) for the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant.

“The results that have come in did not vary from Wednesday night,” returning officer Joni Swidnicki told reporters. “It verifies our process,” she added.

The question on the ballot was “that the council of the City of Regina publicly finance, operate and maintain the new wastewater treatment plant for Regina through a traditional design, bid, build (DBB) approach.”

A poll-by-poll breakdown shows the yes side outweighed the no at 10 of the 35 polls. The most yes votes were cast at Connaught School in the Cathedral area — in the heart of Ward 3 — where 1,286 people cast their ballot for yes compared to 720 for no.

The poll with the highest voter turnout, at 38 per cent, was at Jack MacKenzie School, in Ward 4, where Mayor Michael Fougere resides. The lowest turnout was 6.6 per cent at Albert Community School, in Ward 6.

In total, 21,025 people chose yes, and 27,988 no. There were also seven blank votes, 13 people “over voted,” and 69 ballots were rejected.

In some instances, people voted for both yes and no — overvoting — or left the form blank. Swidnicki said voters at the polling booths had a chance to get a new ballot if there was such an error — which is why none are considered “spoiled” — but in these instances, the voters deliberately chose not to make a change. Some of the rejected ballots were mailed in, and the voter didn’t accurately complete the confirmation envelope.

Swidnicki said she received three formal complaints about voting “irregularities.”

“I’ve confirmed with most people that what transpired was certainly within the normal practice of an election,” she said. For example, one person was concerned with the mail in process, but the ballot was modelled after a draft bylaw that the province put forward, which met the legislative requirements, she said.

Based on the last ward review in 2010, there were officially 157,198 eligible voters. A total of 49,033 votes were cast in the referendum, for a voter turnout of 31 per cent. However, with adjustments for population growth, Swidnicki said the true number of eligible voters is likely closer to about 164,000 people. Voter turnout was comparable to the civic election last fall when 51,103 residents cast ballots.