Local Government Election 2022: Guidance on count procedures for candidates, election agents and counting agents

The Count involves important integrity checks to ensure that the whole process has been secure and can be trusted so that the voter has confidence in the result.  At the Count all of the ballot papers – unused, spoiled and those in the ballot boxes are accounted for.

Ballot papers will be counted electronically. Even-numbered wards will be counted in the Cromdale Hall on the lower ground floor and odd-numbered wards will be counted in the Strathblane Hall on the ground floor.

A Single Transferable Votes (STV) system will be used to elect the councillors for the 17 wards in the City of Edinburgh Council. Under the STV system a vacancy is filled when a candidate has achieved “a quota” of votes. The quota depends on the number of candidates to be elected.

Order of counts

The counts will commence in ward order.

Announcements

PA announcements will be made during the count as follows:

• the start of the opening of ballot boxes
• the start of the electronic count process
• the start of RO adjudication for each ward
• the briefing for candidates and their election agent of the provisional results for each ward
• the announcement of the result of each ward.

The count stages

This describes each of the e-Count stages. They are also shown visually in the e-Count process flowchart diagram after this descripton

Ballot box reception and opening

• This stage is a relatively simple process of removing ballot papers from the ballot boxes and putting them into Ballot Paper Trays, marked up with the ballot box detail ready for including in the eCount process.

Registration

• This is the first stage of the eCount process.  The Registration/Verification Operator will record the total number of ballot papers expected in the tray from information provided on the Ballot Paper Account.

Scanning

• The contents of each Ballot Paper Tray will be scanned in a number of smaller bundles.

Verification

• The job of the Registration/Verification Operator is to check the number of papers processed by the Scanning Operator agrees with the number entered at the Registration stage.  Any variances will be investigated, and the outcome recorded.

First Level Adjudication (Standard Adjudication)

• At this stage the First Level Adjudicator is only able to process “good” votes into the eCount system.  Any other ballot papers must be deferred to the Returning Officer Adjudication stage for a final decision.  No ballot papers are rejected at this stage.

Returning Officer (RO) Adjudication

• The RO will consider all the ballot papers which have been deferred from the first stage adjudication. Any ballot papers which could not be scanned will be entered manually at this stage.
• The RO will run pre-count checks prior to having the system calculate the provisional result which will then be discussed with Candidates and Election Agents.

Recount

The decision on whether to hold a recount or not rests with the Returning Officer. It is unlikely that a recount would be undertaken solely on the grounds of a close result. A recount would be more likely if there were concerns raised regarding the integrity of the count processes. Candidates, agents and observers must raise any concerns about integrity of the count or how any procedure is carried out immediately, so they can be resolved at once.

Recounting means scanning all the ballot papers for the Ward again, repeating the count process described above.

e-Count process flowchart diagram