February 29, 2016
Table of Contents


Payroll for Returning Office and Election Workers

Returning Officers and Election Clerks

Returning Officers and Election Clerks should continue to claim hours worked and mileage until the writ drops. 

From the day the writ drops until polling day, Returning Officers will claim the allowance of $5,732 and Election Clerks will claim the allowance of $4,299.  In addition, Returning Officers and Election Clerks are eligible for a travel allowance where the residence of the returning officer or election clerk is located more than ten kilometres from the returning office.  The amount claimed will be based on how far the returning office is from the residence.  The following table from the Schedule of Fees outlines the amounts associated with the distance ranges:

DISTANCE ALLOWANCE

10-20 kilometres …………………………………………..$400.00

21-30 kilometres …………………………………………..$600.00

31-40 kilometres …………………………………………..$800.00

41 kilometres or more ………………………………..$1,000.00

Returning Officers and Election Clerks can claim mileage associated with travelling to and from training sessions. 

The election period allowance and the travel allowance should be claimed on your March payroll timesheet.

After polling day, Returning Officers will claim the allowance of $1,911 and Elections Clerks will claim the allowance of $1,433.  This amount should be claimed on your April payroll timesheet.

Returning Office Staff

Returning Office staff, such as Automation Coordinators and Administrative Assistants, cannot claim mileage to and from the office.  They can claim mileage if they accompany the Returning Officer or Election Clerk to training events if applicable. 

Returning Officers are responsible for scheduling staff for the returning office.  Wherever possible, ensure that staff are working a minimum of three hours on each shift.  If you have an IT issue and your Automation Coordinator is not in the office, please call the IT Support Desk for assistance rather than calling your Automation Coordinator in to the office.

Overtime will generally be paid after 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week.  If you and your staff agree to work longer shifts (i.e. four 10 hour days instead of five 8 hour days) no overtime will be paid. 

Enumerators for Personal Care Homes

Any Enumerators assigned to enumerate personal care homes will be paid in accordance with the Schedule of Fees.  In this context, a polling division will be defined as groups of 350 voters.  The Enumerator will be paid the base fee of $350 for the first 350 voters and then a pro-rated base fee will be calculated for the number of voters over 350.  Enumerators will also be paid the per-name fee and are eligible to claim mileage.  If an Enumerator attended and was paid for training in May or June 2015 they cannot claim the training fee again.

The compensation for Enumerators will be calculated by ESK Head Office so you do not have to track or record their pay.  You need to make sure that the Enumerator’s name is clearly indicated on the paperwork that will be provided to ESK Head Office.

Revising Agents

You will have to assign a Revising Agent on Revision Day.  This role can be assigned to one of your existing returning office staff or can be someone hired specifically for that role.  They will need to be assigned to the role of Revising Agent in ESPREE SPM (Payroll)  and will be paid the Revising Agent rate of $13.00 for all hours worked on that day.  Revising Agents will also receive a per-name fee for any revisions processed on Revision Day.  ESK Head Office will calculate and enter the per-name fee for Revising Agents if applicable.

Election Officials

All election officials will be paid in accordance with the Schedule of Fees and are eligible for mileage. All elections officials assigned to administer voting at personal care homes will be paid as Mobile Poll Workers and not as Personal Care Home Poll Workers.  Other poll workers assigned to hospital or remand polls will be paid the four hour rate for any poll up to four hours and will be paid the eleven hour rate for polls over four hours.

 

 

 

Accessibility Update

Now that people have begun to receive their accessibility products from Medichair and the ESK Warehouse, it is a good time to send you an update on the Accessibility Project. We are making good progress against the strategic goal of having fully accessible returning offices and advance polls and achieving the best possible accessibility at polling locations on election day. 

Reports were sent to all returning offices on February 20th to 21st providing information on the accessibility status of the returning offices, advance and election day polls (A = accessible, MA = modified accessible, NA = non-accessible) and identified the remediation products that would be sent to each constituency from either Medichair or the ESK warehouse. Returning offices that required remediation received their orders this past week. All other returning offices will receive supplies to remediate advance and polling day locations between March 1st and 10th

Accessibility Product Installation

Many of you will be receiving modular rubber ramps and/or modular aluminum ramps. Below are detailed instructions to assemble and install them at the various locations in your constituency. 

The modular rubber ramps come in a separate box (with the exception of the 1.5 inch ramp) for each section. To assemble it, you will need to remove each piece from its box.

  • A 1” ramp has one piece. Just butt it up against its location.
  • A 1.5” ramp has one piece. Just butt it up against its location.
  • A 2” ramp has three pieces: 1” ramp, 1.0” to 1.5” piece, 1.5” to 2.0” piece. 
  • A 2.5” ramp has four pieces: 1” ramp, 1.0” to 1.5” piece, 1.5” to 2.0” piece, 2.0” to 2.5” piece
  • A 3” ramp has five pieces: 1” ramp, 1.0”  to 1.5” piece, 1.5” to 2.0” piece, 2.0” to 2.5” piece, 2.5” to 3.0” piece

They fit together similar to a jig saw puzzle. Start with the highest piece (butt it up against its location), add the next highest piece and continue until the 1” ramp is in place. If the highest piece is too high, start with the next highest piece instead and again, add each piece until all the pieces have been added.

The modular aluminum ramps (3.5” to 5.0”) come partially assembled. You may need help to complete the assembly.

  • Three pieces are included: one platform and a top and bottom transition place. 
  • Use the top plate only where the doorway is 36” or greater. Otherwise, it is not needed. 
  • All necessary bolts and two adjustable feet are attached to the platform (ramp) section.
  • ½” bolts are used to secure the top and bottom plates to the ramp – use a 1/2” wrench or socket drive to do this.
  • Attach the bottom plate to the ramp using the provided ½” bolts attached to the ramp.
  • If the doorway is 36” or greater, attach the top transition plate using the provided ½” bolts attached to the ramp.
  • If the doorway is less than 36” remove the ½” bolts to eliminate any gap between the ramp and the threshold. 
  • A 9/16” bolt is used to adjust the leveling feet to match the threshold – use a 9/16” wrench or socket drive to do this.
  • First loosen the 9/16” bolt on the levelling feet post, set it to the appropriate height (to match the threshold height) and re-tighten the bolt to secure the levelling feet. 
  • These 9/16” bolts can be loosened and re-tightened until the right height is achieved.
  • Slide the assembled ramp into place against the threshold.

Information Officers Increase Accessibility

Information Officers can increase accessibility simply by being helpful. They can:

  • Ask those voters with disabilities what they can do to help;
  • Open and close heavy doors;
  • Assist voters up and down ramps if need be;
  • Provide chairs for voters needing to rest (while waiting in line or walking to and from the polling station within the location); and
  • Advise the Deputy Returning Officer of the need for curbside voting.

Improve Accessibility

In speaking with people who are beneficiaries of accessibility measures, there are several ways you can help to improve accessibility.

  • Exterior signs should be placed so they are visible above parked vehicles and easily seen on the street by drivers looking for accessible parking spots.
  • If the ground is frozen and the signs can’t be properly placed in the frozen ground, use a pail of sand to hold the sign. This also gives you the flexibility to place the sign exactly where you need to do so.
  • When approaching a person who may need assistance, don’t ask if you can help or assume you know. Ask them what you can do to help them so they can give you specific information and/or directions.

By continuing to work together as a team, we can ensure all voters have access to voting in the provincial election. If you have any questions or concerns about accessibility at any of your locations, please call the Operations Support Centre. 

 

Privacy Reminder

Electronic applications such as VoterView and ESPREE contain a variety of personal information about voters and workers. Please remember that such information should only be searched, reviewed and edited when you have an election-related need to do so. Saskatchewan residents have provided us with their personal information in order to administer the province’s general election and that is the only reason to access it.

An acceptable reason to access or view such information might be processing an absentee voting request, validating or updating a voter’s information at their request, or adding staff to the payroll module. If you have questions about whether an activity is appropriate, please call the Support Desk and choose Option 3 to speak with Operations.

 

 

Furniture in Your Returning Offices: 

At this point you should have all received furniture if it was requested, unless you are expecting dividers in Saskatoon (Martensville-Warman) which will be delivered by the first week in March.

If you have questions about your furniture, please contact the support desk and select option 2 for Finance and Payroll.

Jordan Arendt would like to hear from you regarding the following questions (feel free to elaborate):

  1. Did the vendor make arrangements to drop the furniture off?
  2. Were you satisfied with the service you received from the furniture delivery vendor?
  3. Were you satisfied with the quality of the furniture?
  4. Did you receive what you asked for on your pre-writ assignment?

You can email your responses to the above questions to: [email protected].

 

USB Thumb Drives

Elections Saskatchewan’s Operations team has sent out USB thumb drives to each Returning Officer and these should be arriving shortly. On these USB thumb drives, you will notice that there is an information technology (IT) folder.  Please contact the IT Support Desk at 1-866-249-7186 and select option 1 once you receive these thumb drives to have some tasks completed on your behalf. 

The IT Support Desk agent will be moving files from the USB drives to the Returning Officer’s laptop, as well as verifying some functionality on the laptop in regards to the presentations you will be giving to your field workers.  RO’s, you will need to be at your laptop while this work is being completed, but it should only take 15 minutes.

 

Change in Poll Worker Training Presentation Method

During the IT Event Training sessions held in Regina and Saskatoon, we had demonstrated to the RO/FLT how to use the projector with a USB stick to give the presentations to your workers. With the addition of videos that you will now need to show to your workers, we will be changing the method in which you present to your field workers. 

This new method is relatively simple to setup, but will require you to use the RO laptop, speakers and projector. Included in your USB Thumb drive, there is a section under the IT folder called Instructions, which has two very useful videos as well as a How-To handout. The first video demonstrates how to physically connect all the devices together. The second, demonstrates how to start the presentation from your laptop.

We would suggest that you setup your presentation area ahead of time and do a practice run through the presentation to ensure everything is functional. At any point, if you need any assistance or have questions with the setup, configuring or playing of the presentation, please contact the IT Support Desk at 1-866-249-7186 and select option 1.