Elections Sask. wants voters to be able to cast ballots anywhere

Elections Saskatchewan is outlining a vision for voting in the province where a resident will be able to cast a ballot anywhere—regardless of their postal code. 

It is one of the principles contained in a new report full of recommendations about how to improve the voting process in Saskatchewan by chief electoral officer Michael Boda . 

"It's to make the process more convenient for the voter across the process," he said of the plan, with spans the next three general elections. 

As reported by the Toronto Star and LaPresse, Boda is said to be the federal Liberal government's pick to become the CEO of Elections Canada. 

Elections Saskatchewan and the Ministry of Democratic Institutions have offered no comment to CBC News. 

The report proposes a series of legislative changes, including amending the law to allow voters to be able to cast a ballot at any polling station they deem most convenient. 

"Right now, under the current process, 300 voters are attached to a single ballot box in a given area and the legislation has been that way since the beginning of our province," Boda said.

"So if you're up in Prince Albert but you want to be able to vote in Regina, we want a process that will allow you to vote during the electoral period in Prince Albert, but that your vote would be counted down in Regina."

The plan pitches making such changes over three elections cycles to 2028, with the vote-anywhere idea being applied to the 2028 election. 

Elections Saskatchewan outlines how, ahead of the 2020 general election, it wants to use new technology and reconfigure advanced polling stations, citing that more people are choose to vote ahead of Election Day.  ​

"Fundamentally, and this is not just in our jurisdiction in Saskatchewan it's across the country, voters are looking for more opportunities to vote."

Quarter of 2016 voters cast ballots in advance

Boda said 25 per cent of voters in the 2016 election went to the polls in advance of Election Day. He estimated as many as half of voters could do so in 2020. 

'"Fundamentally, that's not something I, as an election administrator, can judge. I don't know whether people are going to vote during advanced voting or on election day, and so we ended up having some lineups, particularly in urban areas."

Boda said he plans to meet with members of the government and Opposition NDP to discuss the changes. 

Legislative changes would need to be tabled in the fall and passed by the spring in order for recommendations to be introduced by 2020. 

Boda pegs the cost of the changes to be in the range of $500,000 to $1 million. 

In total, administration of the 2016 election cost $23 million over four years.