"X" Marks The Spot
May. 5th, 2007 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhythmaningThe results of the Scottish elections are out.
It seems like an awful lot of people managed to mess up their ballot papers - though unlike me, they seem to have messed up the parliamentary ballot. (It was the council ballot I messed up. Twice.)
The number of "spoilt" ballot papers has soared - more than 100,000 spoilt papers were recorded, and excluded from the count.
According to the Scotsman, in the regional list the turnout was 1.9 million from an electorate of 3.9 million - just under 50%, then. (I am using the Scotsman's figures on the turnout because I couldn't find the figures anywhere on the web; and even then I had to add them up... which is why I used their figures from the regional list vote, because there are only eight regions to add up!)
That means that over 5% of the votes cast were rejected - a huge proportion, frankly. In some places up to 10% of votes were rejected, according to the Scotsman.
The Scotsman also explains the kind of "errors" on ballot sheets that caused them to be rejected. One of these was to only cast a vote for the regional list. Both the constituency and the regional votes were on the same ballot paper. Many of the small parties only put candidates up for the regional vote. If you wanted to support, say, the Green Party - or more or less any of the smaller parties - and couldn't bring yourself to vote for one of the larger parties in the constituency, then your vote would be declared void. This seems a travesty, and people are understandably pissed off about it. If you're interested, the graphic in the Scotsman that explains this is on page 5 of today's paper; I can't see it online.)
The overall outcome is quite curious, too: no two parties will be able to form a majority coalition in the Scottish parliament. This means that we may see the Conservatives supporting Labour-Lib Dem alliance to stop the SNP. I find this possibility very, very amusing!
Edit. There's something else interesting about the turnout figures. More or less across the board, the turnout was over 50%. Except for Glasgow - 43%, and Scotland South - a woeful 29%. I wonder why those south of the central belt are so loth to vote? I'd have guessed it was to do with the rural nature of the region - except that the Highlands and Islands achieved a 55% turnout.
...the fifth example down.
It seems like an awful lot of people managed to mess up their ballot papers - though unlike me, they seem to have messed up the parliamentary ballot. (It was the council ballot I messed up. Twice.)
The number of "spoilt" ballot papers has soared - more than 100,000 spoilt papers were recorded, and excluded from the count.
According to the Scotsman, in the regional list the turnout was 1.9 million from an electorate of 3.9 million - just under 50%, then. (I am using the Scotsman's figures on the turnout because I couldn't find the figures anywhere on the web; and even then I had to add them up... which is why I used their figures from the regional list vote, because there are only eight regions to add up!)
That means that over 5% of the votes cast were rejected - a huge proportion, frankly. In some places up to 10% of votes were rejected, according to the Scotsman.
The Scotsman also explains the kind of "errors" on ballot sheets that caused them to be rejected. One of these was to only cast a vote for the regional list. Both the constituency and the regional votes were on the same ballot paper. Many of the small parties only put candidates up for the regional vote. If you wanted to support, say, the Green Party - or more or less any of the smaller parties - and couldn't bring yourself to vote for one of the larger parties in the constituency, then your vote would be declared void. This seems a travesty, and people are understandably pissed off about it. If you're interested, the graphic in the Scotsman that explains this is on page 5 of today's paper; I can't see it online.)
The overall outcome is quite curious, too: no two parties will be able to form a majority coalition in the Scottish parliament. This means that we may see the Conservatives supporting Labour-Lib Dem alliance to stop the SNP. I find this possibility very, very amusing!
Edit. There's something else interesting about the turnout figures. More or less across the board, the turnout was over 50%. Except for Glasgow - 43%, and Scotland South - a woeful 29%. I wonder why those south of the central belt are so loth to vote? I'd have guessed it was to do with the rural nature of the region - except that the Highlands and Islands achieved a 55% turnout.
...the fifth example down.
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