Mail-in ballots counted in Elections Saskatchewan's second preliminary count

With two races in the provincial election too close to call on Monday, all eyes were on the Conexus Arts Centre as Elections Saskatchewan held a second count of the ballots that included mail-in ballots.

Party scrutineers and returning officers opened mail in ballots constituency by constituency to add to Monday night's election vote count. Tim Williams is the provincial secretary for the NDP.

"Well there's lots of coffee fueling it because it's very methodical, right. Each ballot gets opened, held up, put in a tray, opened, held up, put in a tray so people are very focused,” he explained.

About 30,000 Saskatchewan residents chose to vote by mail. There were 20,000 counted this week and a final 10,000 next week.

"What the parties are watching for is that everything is fairly done and that the counts are accurate and that when a ballot is shown to us one by one that we make sure that what's written on there gets fairly counted for the right party," Williams said.

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It averages out to about 500 mail in ballots per constituency. It could make a difference in constituencies where the election night margin was less than that number.

"We trained very well for this election and I think that showed across the province. so there's always challenges on the last day of voting and when you move into counting but overall things went very very well," said Michael Boda, chief electoral officer for Elections Saskatchewan.

What happens here or during any subsequent recount won't have any bearing on who forms the next government. Only three or four constituencies were close enough on election night that mail in ballots could make a difference.

The Saskatchewan Party already has enough seats guaranteed to form the next government. 

The final count will take place on Nov. 9 and will verify and count remaining ballots, including remaining vote by mail ballots received from Oct. 27 to Nov. 7, ballots from hospitals, and ballots from remand facilities.