[Magdalen] Whither Scotland?

[Roger Stokes]

On 18/09/2014 21:06, Scott Knitter wrote:
> The official announcement is expected around breakfast-time or a
> little later from the central election site near Edinburgh. I've
> always admired U.K. elections for having official announcements. I
> suppose we've got those, too, but we've all heard the outcomes ad
> nauseam via news outlets' projections even before voting ends. In the
> U.K, I gather every constituency has its announcement done publicly,
> giving the final totals.

That is what happens.  I understand that in this referendum each local 
area will report its count to the central counting officer who will 
authorise them to announce their count.  At the end of the night, when 
everything has been tallied, she will announce the official result in 
Edinburgh.

One big difference from the US system is that absentee (postal) ballots 
have to be received by the time the poll closes rather than simply being 
postmarked by then,  This means they are physically present when the 
count is conducted.

> Seems efficient and civilized. And if the
> scheme for collecting vote-counts is efficient, the results can bubble
> up to whatever level is needed rather swiftly, with paper to back up
> the results in case of dispute or very close totals.

The paper trail is important in case of dispute, and there have 
certainly been allegations that some US machines which do not have a 
paper trail are capable of having their tally manipulated.

Roger