Election Office

Scottish Parliament and Local Government

The Local Government and Scottish Parliament Voting Systems

Local Government

The elections on 3 May 2007 will see a change in the way councillors are elected, and new larger ward boundaries within the Western Isles.

These changes have been brought about by the Local Governance Scotland Act 2004

The local government election will be conducted for the first time under the Single Transferable Vote (STV) electoral system.  Under this system, voters rank the candidates in order of preference. Unlike the former first-past-the post system where one councillor was elected for each ward, voters will now elect either three or four Councillors in multi-member wards.

Electors record their vote by placing a ‘1’ in the box to the right of the name of the candidate for their first choice, a ‘2’ in the box to the right of the name of the candidate for their second choice, a ‘3’ in the box to the right for the name of the candidate for their third choice, a ‘4’ in the box to the right of the name of the candidate of their fourth choice, and so on. They may vote for as many or as few candidates as they wish.

The numbers used must be in sequence. If a mistake is made, the vote will be valid up to the point where the error was made: for example, if the elector misses out a ‘4’ and just ranks ‘1, 2, 3 and 5’, only the first three preferences will be valid.

How do Local Government Candidates get elected?

The first step is to count the number of valid votes and then calculate the number of votes required by each candidate to be elected.  This is known as ‘the quota’. To arrive at the quota you divide the total number of valid votes by the number of seats plus one and then add one to the result.

Mathematically the formula is:

(	Total number of valid votes	)	+ 1 = Quota
	Seats available + 1

At the first stage the preferences from each ballot paper are counted. Any candidate who achieves the quota is elected. At the next stage, the surplus votes that a successful candidate has above the quota, are transferred to the remaining candidates. Whenever a transfer of votes happens, it is according to the voters’ next preferences.

The remaining candidates’ votes are counted to see if they are now above the quota. If no candidate has achieved the quota, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated, and their votes are transferred to the remaining candidates.

Each of the following stages of the count involves:

• the allocation of votes from the previous stage – either surplus votes from a candidate who has achieved the quota; or votes from the candidate with the lowest number of votes who has been eliminated

• the election of any candidate who has achieved the quota; or if none has achieved the quota, then the exclusion of the candidate with the lowest number of votes The count progresses through as many stages as are required to elect candidates to the three or four seats to be filled.  At any stage, if the number of candidates elected plus those remaining is equal to the number of seats to be filled then the remaining candidates are elected (even though they may not have reached the quota).  For a more detailed explanation of the count procedures for the STV system, please refer to the VoteScotland website.

Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliamentary election uses two systems:

• A Constituency vote – First Past the Post (FPTP)
• Regional vote – Additional Member System (AMS)

The Scottish Parliament has 129 Members of Parliament (MSPs).  Of these, 73 Constituency MSPs are elected via the traditional FPTP method.  The MSPs chosen to fill the 56 remaining seats are known as Regional MSPs and are elected using the Additional Member System (AMS) which takes into account the number of Constituency Seats that a Party has already won.

The Additional Member System

The voting system used in Scottish Parliament general elections is known as the Additional Member System (AMS). AMS is a type of proportional representation. This means that the share of seats each party receives broadly reflects its level of support among voters.

As has already been noted, the MSPs for the constituency seats are elected using the first-past-the-post system.

The MSPs for the regional seats are decided using a set of calculations. Within each region, these calculations take into account the number of second votes that a party has received and the number of constituency seats it has already won.

The calculations work as follows:

First Round
The total number of second votes for each party is divided by the number of constituency seats they have won in that region plus one (the divisor).
The party with the highest number of votes after this calculation gains the first additional member.

Second Round to Seventh Round
The procedure for the first round is repeated with the number of regional seats won in preceding rounds added to the divisor each time.

Seats are allocated in accordance with party lists. (That is why Members elected by the second vote are sometimes referred to as list MSPs.) Before the election, parties must draw up a list of regional candidates and submit them to the relevant returning officer. The order of candidates on this list is important as seats are allocated by starting at the top of the list and working down. This means that if a party wins three regional seats, the first three names on the list will become MSPs.

If a party has done well in the second vote it can win a number of representatives in the Parliament – even if it did not win any constituency seats outright. However, if a party has done well in the first vote, and has won enough constituency seats to reflect its overall share of the vote, it may not win any regional seats at all.

Although it could be said that the regional vote works by a system of party lists, it is still possible to stand as an individual. A candidate standing in a region – who is effectively a list of one – can gain a regional seat if he or she wins enough votes.

New Ballot Papers

There will be two ballot papers in the combined elections on 3 May 2007. One paper will be for the Scottish Parliamentary election and one for the Local Government election.

Scottish Parliamentary Ballot Paper		Local Government Ballot Paper
Until now there have been two papers in a Scottish Parliamentary election.  This has been replaced by one paper on which you have two votes to cast.  The first vote is the Regional vote, and should be made by way of marking a cross for the party you wish to vote for.  The second vote is for the Constituency candidate, you should mark a cross for the particular candidate you wish to vote for.		On the Local Government ballot paper you will be asked to rank candidates in order of preference, marking a ‘1’ against your preferred option, ‘2’ for the next and so on for as many or as few candidate as desired.