Tuesday 10 January 2006

An End to Late Night Counting

To maintain the concurrence of Holyrood and Scottish council elections the Electoral Commission has recommended that the count for Holyrood should held over until the following day. With the first Scottish Council election under STV starting on the Saturday morning.

This will mean that the counters at least will be fresh, however I think the party activists are still going to be exhausted the following morning as we're liable to be sitting up watching the council votes south of the border and the Welsh Assembly elections. Yes we are anoraks those of us who attend counts into the wee small hours.

There is also discussion about possibly doing the Holyrood count by an electronic system. If that does happen I may miss trying to read the expressions of the other parties as the boxes are upended and emptied. However, I suppose they still need to verify the mark on the ballots so that still might allow me to practice my poker face (i.e. the one where I draw a royal flush).

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