Electoral Reform Society: Shocking level of spoilt ballots needs considered response

Friday, 11, May 2007 12:00

Many thousands of voters went to the polls yesterday to play their part in democracy, only to find that their votes counted for nothing. It appears that almost ten percent of votes cast in the Scottish Parliament elections were invalid as the ballot papers had not been completed correctly. The Electoral Reform Society has described the situation as shocking and has called for action.

“We need a full and open enquiry into why so many votes were spoilt in these elections,” commented Ken Ritchie, the Society’s Chief Executive.

“It is clear, however, that the fault is not a consequence of the voting system. When the system was first used in 1999 the number of spoilt ballots was less than one per cent. We need to understand what has gone so wrong as to increase this number more than tenfold.

Neither is the fault in the electronic counting technology. While the counting equipment has experienced teething problems in some areas, it is not the equipment that has caused people to make mistakes in the completion of their ballot papers.

Although many local government elections are still being counted, it appears that with the new Single Transferable Vote system the level of spoilt papers is very much lower, showing that Scottish voters are quite capable of using different voting systems.

We therefore need to ask what changes might have led to the difficulties. This year there have been two major changes that might have affected voters. Firstly, instead of two ballot papers, one for constituency candidates and a second for regional seats, a single ballot paper with two columns was used. There is some evidence that the design of the ballot paper and accompanying instructions might have caused some confusion.

Secondly, Scottish Parliament elections, which required people to vote with two ‘X’s, were held alongside the local government elections in which people were asked to vote with numbers. It is possible that holding two elections with very different voting systems on the same day was a mistake. Holding future elections on different days is an option that must be considered.”

The Society has argued the need for analysis rather than knee-jerk reactions. Dr. Ritchie concluded:

“Only when we understand what has gone wrong will we be in a position to determine what must be done to ensure that we never see this level of spoilt papers again. We would, however, like to see consideration of both the Scottish Parliament and local government using the single transferable vote system – not only is STV a better system in democratic terms, but it appears that it is easier for voters to use.”