Election day arrives in Saskatchewan, the third province to head to polls during pandemic

Polls are set to open Monday morning for Saskatchewan’s 29th provincial election as the Saskatchewan Party seeks a fourth consecutive mandate.

“This will be the largest non-wartime event in the history of our province, [with] more than 800,000 eligible voters,” said Tim Kydd, director of communications and outreach for Elections Saskatchewan. 

A record-breaking 119,394 voters had already attended an advance poll by Thursday. Voters casting their ballots in-person on Monday can do so from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. CST.

However, Elections Saskatchewan does not expect all of the results to be available after polls close Monday night.

In what will be the third provincial election held in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic — the others were in New Brunswick on Sept. 14 and British Columbia on Saturday — 61,225 Saskatchewan residents have received mail ballots.

Ballots sent by mail will only begin to be counted on Wednesday. In tightly fought ridings, the margins may be too narrow to decide the race without accounting for the mail ballot results.

For those casting a ballot in-person on Monday, Elections Saskatchewan is strongly recommending that voters wear a mask at the polls and stay home if feeling unwell. 

Voters will need to bring identification, such as a driver’s licence or government-issued photo ID, with their name, photo and current address. They can also bring two non-photo pieces of identification with their name, at least one of which shows their current address.

As well, another person assigned to the same voting location can vouch for a voter.

When the Saskatchewan Legislature was dissolved at the end of its fixed four-year term, the Saskatchewan Party held 46 seats and the New Democratic Party held 13. The remaining two seats in the 61-seat legislature were vacant.

Thirty-one seats are needed for a majority government. 

CBC’s live coverage of the 2020 Saskatchewan election will begin at 7:30 p.m. CST.