Scottish Elections ruined by vote problems

The Scottish Elections in 2007 for the Scottish Parliament and Local Councils will go down in history as the most inept and inadequate ever. They are worse that those that dogged the 2004 American Presidential elections and to hear Labour, as usual blaming it on anyone else but the Scottish Executive is beyond belief.

At the moment it looks like over 100,000 spoilt ballot papers have been (not) counted in the Scottish Parliamentary elections, no figures for the council elections are appearing yet but they will likely be as bad.

In addition to this the count has been suspended in seven places either because of system problems or recounts because of the vast number of spoilt ballots and what must now be a complete lack of faith in the system.

None of these problems will be news to people who have been reading the Scottish Blogs during the election as they have been highlighted many times.

What happens next, there will be an inquiry and as usual no one will be held responsible, but there is a likelihood that there may be legal challenges as this size of problem has never been encountered before. I foresee a number of challenges that may go on for some time leaving the real result in doubt for many months.

Human rights lawyers will no doubt be rubbing their hands with glee this morning with the thought of how much money they can make from this.
Rumours will soon be going round that Cherie Blair has arrived in Scotland to see if she can get her snout into the trough as Tony has given up his day job.

No doubt there will also be a number of former or budding politicians who will also be looking at challenging the results.

So what does this mean to us the voter (spoilt or not).

Without a doubt it shows that our level of interest in Politics has diminished when we cannot be bothered to learn how to vote. The information has been there and the help has been there. If we can't be bothered to notice that there were new ballot papers and new forms of voting then to an extent we have only ourselves to blame.

However we have also the fact that various organisations warned the Scottish Executive about combining the two types of voting on one day. Whilst it was no doubt cheaper and should have been more efficient, it has confused voters as to whether they should mark with a cross or with numbers. Scotland managed before when the elections were not held on the same day.

Right now we have become a third world country in terms of Electoral Competence, we will be a laughing stock to many countries whom we have looked down on in the past years. This is yet another in the long line of incompetent decisions made by the Scottish Executive and will live on to embarrass them for many years.

The result of the election will not now be known until much later today, though from indications it will be very close. After watching the coverage last night I was appalled at the stumbling and mumbling Jack McConnell after his declaration, if he retains his position as First Minister it may be time to flee the country, he is nearly as much of a joke as the elections. I just hope the SNP do get most seats and we get a change, it can only be better for Scotland.

Update: This story from one of the returning officers is worth a read.

More stories of incompetence appearing all over the place. A Wifie was on BBC Radio Scotland news at lunchtime as I was driving home saying at her Polling Station the plastic boxes had failed/broken and the returning officer was stacking the papers up on the floor next to him. So much for secrecy/security/honesty etc etc etc. Apparently she complained and the officer was rude to her. She is chasing the matter up with Chief Returning Officer.

Another woman from Aberdeen detailed how she had not received her postal vote which is again appearing to be a common problem.

Counts still going on.


Elections marred by vote problems