Scotland: lower rate of spoilt ballots in STV council elections
The Scotsman reports: THE city council elections escaped the widespread confusion that plagued the Holyrood vote, detailed statistics released today show.
Figures given out by Edinburgh returning officer Tom Aitchison reveal only 1.3 per cent of council votes were spoiled at the May 3 elections in the Capital, compared with 5.2 per cent of Holyrood constituency votes, and 3.1 per cent of Holyrood list votes.
There had been fears the introduction of a new voting system for council elections, the Single Transferable Vote (STV), would lead to confusion among voters.
Although the percentage of spoiled council ballot papers this time was double the 0.6 per cent recorded in Edinburgh's last council elections in 2003, it was nowhere near the disastrous figures for this year's Scottish Parliament elections.
The Electoral Reform Society - which has long campaigned for STV - said the low rate of spoiled papers in the council elections showed voters had coped well with the change from voting with an X to ranking candidates in order of preference. -- Scotsman.com News - Holyrood Elections - Council result makes easier reading than Holyrood