Sask. Party expects voting to match UCP, Tory races

The Saskatchewan Party’s longtime executive director says he expects voter turnout in the party’s leadership election to be similar to that in recent races to lead the federal Conservatives and Alberta’s new United Conservative Party.

“I can tell you that we’ve received a significant volume (of ballots) and that I think the numbers will be very comparable,” Patrick Bundrock said Tuesday.

Turnout in the Conservative race, which was held in May and resulted in Saskatchewan MP Andrew Scheer beating out 13 other candidates, totalled 55 per cent, with 141,000 of 259,000 members casting ballots.

While 90 per cent of UCP members who registered to vote in the party’s October leadership election cast a ballot, overall turnout in the new Alberta party’s leadership race — which resulted in a Jason Kenney victory — was also 55 per cent.

A similar turnout on Saturday would result in about 14,800 of the Sask. Party’s 27,125 members — about two-third of whom signed up between August and the December cut-off — voting for Brad Wall’s successor and the province’s 15th premier.

Bundrock declined to speculate further, saying ballots can be received by mail or dropped off at Prairieland Park in Saskatoon or the party’s Regina office until 5 p.m. Friday. Exact figures won’t be known until the following day, he said.

Those ballots that arrive at the party’s office by mail are collected by representatives of the auditing firm MNP and locked up. They will remain inaccessible to everyone except the auditor until around 5 a.m. Saturday, when the counting is set to begin.

“I believe the whole (counting) process will take about 12 hours, because … at convention there’s in-person voting from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.,” Bundrock said, adding that while he expects about 1,000 people to attend the event it’s not clear how many of them will vote on-site.

Once the preferential ballots are counted and tabulated — a process overseen by MNP and representatives from each of the five leadership campaigns — the results will be announced, ballot by ballot, beginning in the “early evening,” he said.

The party has previously refused to say how many ballots have been inadvertently spoiled by voters who failed to complete all the voting requirements. Bundrock said Tuesday an “overwhelming majority” have followed the process correctly.

The race, the Sask. Party’s first contested leadership race since Elwin Hermanson won the party’s leadership in 1998, began in August. The five candidates still in the running to replace Wall are: Tina Beaudry-Mellor, Ken Cheveldayoff, Alanna Koch, Scott Moe and Gord Wyant.