With a by-election for Weyburn residents coming up on May 31st, the City of Weyburn provided an overview as to the mail-in ballot process. 

Donette Richter, City Clerk and Returning Officer for the City of Weyburn, said that starting on Monday, April 17th, city hall will start accepting both electronic and in-person applications for mail-in ballots. 

Richter explained the two types of mail-in ballots.

"There is a mail-in ballot where you would attend city hall and sign up to have a ballot mailed out to you once the ballots are printed, or you can do it electronically by either emailing or phoning me. I can send you the information, or we can e-mail you the information and do it all electronically."

Richter explained that the in-person process is very straightforward.

"If you are unable to vote at the advanced polls or the regular poll, you can come to city hall and you basically just fill out what's called a voter registration and a voter declaration, declaring that you are unable to vote in person on election day. Then once that's all filled in, we keep that on file until we have the ballots printed."

Richter said that the ballots will be printed a few weeks after the nominations close on April 26th. Then, towards the middle of May, she said they will send out all the ballot packages to those that have requested them and filled out the voter registrations.

They must be returned to the election office at city hall by 8:00 p.m. on election day, or May 31st.

Richter then explained the electronic version of receiving the ballot package.

"You would go to the city website, you could e-mail or you can phone me to have me e-mail you the information. You will receive a package electronically, then you will have to fill in documentation. You will also have to have a witness sign your information. You would still have to present identification, but you would have to actually provide that all back to us electronically, and the instructions would all be in the package that would be emailed to you."

Richter said that there is a different deadline for each application, depending on whether you go the in-person route or electronically, because of time constraints.

"If you are doing an in-person application, you can actually come to city hall right up until the day before election day, so May 30th at 4:00 p.m. is the deadline to come in to register for a mail-in ballot. Then we would just give you the package right there and you could literally vote right there and hand it right back and we would put it in a locked ballot box, not to be counted until after 8:00 p.m. on May 31st." 

"Or you can bring it back to us the next day, as long as we have it by 8:00 p.m. on May 31st."

The electronic deadline for the application is earlier, Richter said, because of the back and forth of paperwork that is involved. 

"The deadline for electronic mail-in ballot applications is 4:00 p.m. on Friday, May 19th, and that allows us a couple of weeks to get the ballots and the information to you and for you to get them back to us by 8:00 p.m. on May 31st."

Richter wanted to remind residents that there are no voter cards and pre-registration is not required to vote at the regular polls.

"So you will be registered at the polls. The only time you're pre-registering is if you want a mail-in ballot. Of course, then you have to fill in the registration form at the time you apply, but there will be no voters list or voter cards, so you will register at the polls for the election."  

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