How were the Scottish elections run?

The Electoral Commission’s report into May’s Scottish elections is now out and broadly paints a positive picture of how the elections were administered.

As is often the case in such reports, it is the apparently obvious recommendations that highlight how something, somewhere took a rather unfortunate turn. In the case of this report, one such recommendation is tucked way unobtrusively in the middle of p.8:

Following any boundary reviews ROs and EROs must make thorough checks with the relevant Boundary Commission to ensure they are able to precisely identify the exact boundaries that are set out in legislation.

Indeed.

(700 people in Glasgow were sent poll cards telling them to vote in the wrong place.)

On the big issue in many people’s minds ahead of the elections, the report rightly brings good news. The 2007 Scottish elections were marked by controversy over the much higher proportion of rejected ballot papers than for previous Scottish Parliament elections.

This time, aided in part by the use of different ballot paperwork, the rejection rates fell right back down to levels last seen in 1999.

Looking to the future, the paper echoes the Electoral Commission report on the AV referendum when it comes to following up invalid postal votes and also promises a discussion paper on the thorny issue of when elections should be counted.

Scottish Parliament Elections Report – Electoral Commission

Read more by or more about or .
This entry was posted in Election law.
Advert

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert



Recent Comments

  • Joe Bourke
    I would be very surprised if Beijing concludes that it needs American and European help to dig itself out of the Evergrande hole. China's belt and road initia...
  • Joe Bourke
    Peter, I think Professor Helm may be alluding to the oft quoted mantra "We cannot have Scandinavian quality public services and American level of taxes". Co...
  • Simon R
    I feel this article seems to be confusing two things. What is important is not the NHS per se, but the principle that people can access the healthcare they nee...
  • Leekliberal
    We pro-EU activists are NOT asking our leadership to 'wang on about reversing Brexit'. It would just be good if they could even occasionally mention it! We coul...
  • David Symonds
    I wrote to the Labour Party asking them to back off their cynical and unfair attack on Lib Dems. I do not understand how Labour (a so called Progressive Party) ...