DRS delivers fifth STV by-election in Scotland

DRS e-Counting solutions have once again delivered results efficiently and effectively, this time in last night's Ballochmyle Ward by-election in East Ayrshire. This is the fifth time DRS e-Counting has been successfully employed in Scotland this year.

Returning Officer, Fiona Lees said the Ballochmyle Ward election count was a huge success, with results being available within 1 and half hours.

With an electorate of over 11 thousand, the postal, tendered and normal ballot papers were electronically counted using three award winning DRS PhotoScribe® scanners. With a 29.19% percent turnout, the papers were registered, scanned, verified and adjudicated where necessary by the Returning Officer and her staff, and the results were delivered less than 1 hour half hours after scanning commenced. The complex single transferable count finally went to 3 stages

Comments Fiona: “As the complex single transferable vote system was used for this by-election, electronic counting was our best option. It allows us to produce a result more quickly and more accurately than would ever be the case with manual counting.”

DRS elections specialist, Samantha Jones comments: “DRS are delighted to have worked with East Ayrshire Council on the Ballochmyle Ward by-election. It is our ongoing aim to help reduce the administrative burden of elections, whilst ensuring the security, integrity and accuracy of the results.”

Additional information
DRS has repeatedly delivered accurate, robust and secure e-Counting solutions around the world. Its technology gives assurance that the correct number of ballot papers are entered into the count and each paper is counted once, votes are electronically recorded where the voter’s intent is clear, images of ballot papers where the voter’s intent is not clear are passed to election officials for adjudication and higher security measures are applied through audit trails and access controls.

The DRS PS960 won the Hardware Product of the Year at this year’s prestigious DM Awards held at the Tower Hotel in London on 23rd October. The awards reward outstanding products, suppliers and projects in the data, document and content management industry.

The PhotoScribe® PS960 scanner offers full duplex bitonal or greyscale image capture and can process ballot papers up to 18” in length. It sets a new standard in data and image processing innovation and has been used around the world to process complex and time critical elections, voter registration, census and examination processing exercises.

For more information please contact:
Katie McBreen or Jill Hawkins, Friday’s Media Group, 18 Soho Square, London, W1D 3QL
Telephone: +44(0)207 851 4657 
Katiem@fridays-group.co.uk or Jillh@fridays-group.co.uk

 

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