DRS delivers Scottish by-elections in record time
DRS manages series of Scottish by-elections following the secure delivery of the 2007 combined Scottish Parliament and Local Government elections
Following the secure delivery of the high profile and complex 2007 combined Scottish Parliament and Local Government elections, where DRS e-Counting technology delivered 32 accurate counts in Scotland, producing results for just under 500 individual contests in under 24 hours, DRS has continued to work in partnership with election officials to deliver the results in a series of complex Local Government STV by-elections. A total of seven wards within five councils held by-elections over the course of just a few months. The elections were called for a variety of reasons, including resignation and death of the incumbent councillors.
Argyll and Bute
One of the first was Argyll and Bute Council, who were quick to re-establish their partnership with DRS for the Helensburgh and Lomond South Ward by-election. Having been the first council in Scotland to make use of DRS e-Counting technology back in 2005, Returning Officer Nigel Stewart was keen to work with DRS again. “I have always had confidence in the e-Counting technology to deliver accurate results efficiently and effectively. The DRS e-Counting system is a robust and reliable system and we deployed it to improve the speed, accuracy and efficiency of the STV election count process,” he said.
With a 37.4 percent turnout from an electorate of just under 6,000, two DRS PhotoScribe® scanners were used to electronically count the 2,244 ballot papers. Just 60 minutes after scanning commenced the results were declared. This included, where necessary, verification and adjudication by the Returning Officer and his staff. The complex single transferable count finally went to four stages; if counted manually it could have taken around 30 people anything between three and four hours.
Glasgow, Edinburgh and East Ayrshire
Elsewhere, in the Baillieston and Drumchapel/Anniesland Wards in Glasgow, Forth Ward in Edinburgh and Ballochmyle Ward in East Ayrshire, results were also recorded in record time. Depending on the number of stages within the vote, final numbers were available in anything from 25 minutes to just 90 minutes – counting up to almost 7,000 papers within one ballot.
Glasgow City Council’s Returning Officer George Black commented: “For this sort of election, electronic counting allows us to produce a result more quickly and more accurately than would ever be the case with manual counting.”
Improving security, accuracy and efficiency in election management DRS always aim to deliver secure, accurate results while reducing the administrative burden of counts. It would simply not be possible to complete a complex STV election as quickly by hand. In all cases, Returning Officers found their jobs were made significantly quicker, easier and more efficient with the use of DRS’ e-Counting system.
The benefits brought by the system are manifold: assurance that the correct number of ballot papers are entered into the count; the guarantee that each paper is counted, but counted only once; electronically recording votes where the voter’s intent is clear; passing images of ballot papers – where the voter’s intent is not clear – to election officials for adjudication; higher security measures through audit trails and access controls. The state-of-the-art scanners easily deal with single and multi-vote papers.
DRS is a global leader in the field of electronic election processing management. Its systems help significantly reduce the administrative burden of political elections whilst ensuring and maintaining the utmost security, integrity and accuracy of the results. By-elections such as these are an important demonstration of what can be achieved when Returning Officers are able to realise the benefits of electoral modernisation technology.