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It was crunch time for a handful of volunteer printers across the province this weekend, as the printing of ballots for the 2024 Saskatchewan election got underway.
They’ve been working tirelessly since the nomination deadline at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Michael Boda, Chief Electoral Officer of Saskatchewan, said it’s all hands on deck.
“It’s a very, very big effort, but it’s a very disciplined effort that we follow,” he said. “We manage these ballots very carefully.”
There are a total of 243 candidates running across 61 different constituencies. Boda said all these options are great for democracy.
“We have one constituency with six candidates, a number with five, a number with four, and many with three,” he said. “We have a lot of candidates, and that’s exciting for this process.”
It’s a very fast process — the ballots have to be ready for day one of voting week, which is October 22. This gives staff less than 10 days to proof, print and ship the ballots.
It’s all hands on deck to make the printing magic happen. Nearly one million ballots will be printed for the upcoming election at six different printing stations. This location in Regina prints about half of the total ballots. @CJMENews @CKOMNews pic.twitter.com/j3ZOeb1OSO
— Nicole Garn (@garnnic) October 13, 2024
Six different printers will print a total of nearly one million ballots.
“We’re using six printers, principally in Saskatoon and Regina, but we have one in North Battleford, and we have another in Winnipeg,” Boda said.
“We’re printing 990,000 ballots, and that’s enough for every registered voter in the province, plus 20 per cent in case eligible voters come and register at the polls.”
There’s an extra 20 per cent of ballots made for each constituency.
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Once the printing process is complete, the ballots are shipped to the returning offices. Elections Saskatchewan is currently in the process of training election workers.
Corie Triffo is the president director of PrintWest Regina. He explains how the conventional printing press actually works.
“Through the backside of the press, the paper is fed in,” he said. “There’s a roller train on the top of the press with an inking unit. That inking unit is transferred down through a set of rollers, which actually imprints onto an aluminum printing plate that’s then transferred to a blanket.
“Then that’s actually stamped onto each sheet as the sheet comes through the press. So there’s a large cylinder in there that creates the high pressure for the printing press.”
Saturday was a big day for Corie Triffo, president director of PrintWest (left) and Michael Boda, Chief Electoral Officer of Saskatchewan as the province prints nearly one million ballots for the election. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)
The press is around 50 years old and is operated by an employee.
“The machine is quite old, and the technology really hasn’t advanced that much outside of like operational advancements,” Triffo said.
The 2020 provincial election saw 236 candidates after 258 in 2016, a record number of candidates.
Election week starts on Oct. 22 and ends on Oct. 28. There will be no voting locations open on Oct. 27.
Visit Elections Saskatchewan for more information on where and when you can vote.
