First use of e-Counting technology delivers accurate results for complex, combined Scottish elections

The high profile 2007 combined Scottish Parliament and Local Government elections were extremely complex. The Parliamentary ballot paper contained two contests on the same paper - using first past the post for the constituency member, and an additional member system for the regional member. The Local Government ballot paper contained a voting system that had never been used before in Scotland - the Single Transferable Vote.

Despite these complexities, DRS e-Counting technology counted the votes accurately, transparently and securely with declarations being made from 00:30 on Friday 4th May – if counted manually, the results of the Local Government elections would not have been available until several days later.

In Glasgow City, the single largest count in Scotland, the Local Government ballot papers using the STV election system were scanned in just over two hours, and results were available for the Returning Officer’s scrutiny soon after. This experience was repeated around Scotland with some Returning Officers choosing to count all contests through the night, and some choosing to break between the Scottish Parliament count and the counting of the Local Government contests.

Due to the closeness of one result in Aberdeen, a full Scottish Parliament constituency recount was undertaken on Friday. The results of the recount fully endorsed the original count, underlining the accuracy, reliability and robustness of the DRS e-counting system, as well as the consistency of Local Authority adjudication.

Five out of the 32 count sites unfortunately were initially unable to output Parliamentary final results. In consultation with DRS, the Returning Officers at these sites decided to adjourn until later in the day. By 10:30 on Friday all these sites had received a technical update enabling final results to be produced. All the Parliamentary results for these five sites were declared shortly after each count recommenced.

At all times, vote data remained secure and both scanning and adjudication was able to continue uninterrupted.

Investigations are underway as to the precise cause of these delays, but at this early stage it appears likely that the unprecedented volume of ballots requiring manual adjudication was the major contributory factor.

DRS deeply regret these delays and the frustrations experienced by the Returning Officers, their staff and the awaiting candidates, and wish to thank all the Returning Officers of Scotland and their teams who worked tirelessly in partnership with DRS to deliver these extremely large and complex counts successfully and accurately.

DRS is dedicated to the delivery of secure, robust technologies for the counting of elections and has earned a worldwide reputation over the last 10 years for delivering accurate and secure e-Counting solutions.

A number of press reports have incorrectly linked the DRS e-Counting system with the high level of rejected ballot papers. DRS would like to make it absolutely clear that the electronic counting process was not responsible for rejecting any ballot papers, it simply provided a fast and efficient method for Returning Officers to identify and record what transpired to be an unfortunate level of rejected ballots.

DRS e-Counting technology delivered 32 secure counts in Scotland – producing results for just under 500 individual contests in under 24 hours as opposed to the several days estimated to count the same election manually.

DRS will work with Returning Officers, the Scottish Executive, the Scotland Office and the Electoral Commission to identify where issues were experienced and what lessons can be learnt for future counts.

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