MOOSOMIN — During an election, returning officers play an important role in ensuring the voting process runs smoothly, but what does that role actually entail? Based at an office in Indian Head, John Kort is the returning officer for the Moosomin-Montmartre constituency and provided some insight into what his job is all about.
“Every constituency basically runs somewhat independently in that we have the responsibility for making the election work in our constituency,” he said. “We have to follow Election Saskatchewan protocols and all their processes and so forth so that everybody in Saskatchewan gets the same kind of experience as much as possible.”
Kort’s role is a senior position responsible for the constituency, working alongside an election clerk to handle numerous tasks in a short period.
“We’re sort of a ‘one-two’ team, and we were hired back at the beginning of the year, and so we had a number of functions that needed to be done,” Kort explained. “It’s only in the last little over a month that we’ve actually had an office and office staff to work. So the election clerk and I did the preliminary stuff, and that included visiting every community that was going to have ballot boxes and trying to line up a hall at which people could vote.”
In a constituency the size of Moosomin-Montmartre, just touching all the bases is no small feat. Home to more than 20,000 people, the constituency was one of 25 made for the first provincial general election back in 1905.
“It goes all the way to Vibank and then over to Fleming,” Kort said. “There are 25 polling divisions all together, so there will be 25 ballot boxes on the 28th. Plus, we have seven ballot boxes for Voting Week that will start on Tuesday.”
There are also election workers that need to be hired, and a lot of them. Around 10,000 staff in total across the province are needed to run the election and work all the voting places.
“There’s a bit of arranging to do,” Kort said. “It’s not only the halls, but then once we get close to the election, once we have our office staff, then we start hiring election workers, and that’s a big job because every ballot box requires two people.”
Even before the Voting Week that began Tuesday, and Election Day on Oct. 28, returning officers perform many tasks that go unseen by the general public.
“It was my responsibility to accept the nominations from the various candidates and put their names into the system so that the ballot looks correct,” explained Kort. “Then they sent the ballots to me and to all the other constituencies, and then I had to check them over to make sure the ballots are correct.”
Once satisfied with the ballots, a number is allocated to each of the polling locations, ready to be utilized by the voting public.
“One of the goals of Elections Saskatchewan is to lower any or remove any barriers to voting so that people who want to vote can vote,” Kort said. “One of those components is personal care facilities. So in Moosomin, for example, there are two personal care facilities. In Indian Head, there’s two. So we’ll actually send an election team to those places because some of those residents are not able to go to the voting place to cast their votes.”
Even with all the painstaking efforts to make sure the voting process is simple and available to all eligible voters, there are still people who just do not vote.
“All we can do at Elections Saskatchewan is let people know where they’re voting and make it easy for them to vote—remove the barriers—and if people vote, that’s great. If they decide not to, that becomes their responsibility,” Kort said.
Ballots can be cast during Voting Week, which runs from Oct. 22-26 from 10 am to 7 pm each day. On Election Day, Oct. 28, those hours are slightly longer from 9 am to 8 pm.
