January 26, 2016
Table of Contents
Comprehensive Evaluation of Elections SK’s Delivery of the 28th General Election: A Survey of Candidates and Interviews with Political Parties
In issue eight of the Newsfeed, I described a planned survey of voters and non-voters. Another important stakeholder group that we need to speak to are candidates and representatives of the province’s political parties. Elections Saskatchewan (ESK) provides various election-related materials and assistance to political parties and candidates during the election and throughout the election period. So, it is important to gauge their satisfaction with our service provision and with our conduct of the General Election.
As with the survey of voters and non-voters, ESK has contracted the University of Saskatchewan’s Social Sciences Research Laboratories (SSRL) to conduct the survey of candidates. However, unlike the voters/non-voters survey, data will not be collected over the telephone. Instead, candidates will be invited to complete a short online survey relating to their satisfaction with ESK’s conduct of the 2016 Saskatchewan General Election. Questions will relate to topics such as their satisfaction with the nominations process, information services, voter registration, and polling stations. In addition to understanding candidates’ satisfaction, recommendations for improvement will also be collected so as to assist us in refining our process for conducting the general elections. All surveys will be completed anonymously. Candidates’ comments and feedback will be used to improve the overall performance of ESK, and will not target one constituency or area over another.
Also, similar topics will be explored through interviews with each political party’s Chief Official Agent (COA). They will be asked questions about the conduct of the 28th General Election and about ESK’s performance over the entire election cycle. Interviews will allow us to collect in-depth information about COA’s perceptions and their recommendations for improvement. The two different approaches – surveys and interviews – are complementary and will result in a detailed understanding of political parties’ opinions. A University of Saskatchewan political scientist will conduct these interviews shortly after election day.
My next article related to our evaluation plan will outline the last two stakeholder surveys – the surveys of poll workers and the Field Leadership Team. In the meantime, if you have questions or comments, please feel free to touch base with Jeff Kress or Bonnie Schenher.
Sincerely,
Dr. Michael Boda
Chief Electoral Officer
Province of Saskatchewan
We want to thank all those who have participated in our Newsfeed Feedback Survey. To date, 56 FLT members have completed the survey, and the results so far have been positive. An early analysis of the responses shows that the Newsfeed is meeting its intended purpose of keeping FLT members up-to-date on a variety of matters leading to the April 4, 2016 election.
We are continually seeking to improve our communications tools, and your feedback is crucial to this process. We invite all those who have not yet participated in the survey to do so by Monday, February 1, 2016. The survey shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to complete, and you can add the time to your monthly invoice. To take the survey, please click on the following link: http://fluidsurveys.com/s/newsfeedfeedback/.
ESK’s Returning Officers have the primary responsibility for staffing the polling places in their constituency. During the 28th Provincial General Election roughly 10,000 people will be needed to fill main roles at polling places. This article lists the five main roles and their primary responsibilities.
For more information on the roles and responsibilities of election officials, please contact Kathy Fiedelleck at 306-551-7565, or by email at [email protected].
Supervisory Deputy Returning Officer (SDRO)
Deputy Returning Officer (DRO)
Poll Clerk (PC)
Information Officer (IO)
Registration Officer (RegO)
Reminder: Upcoming Training Event
We’re looking forward to seeing everyone during our upcoming training events scheduled for: