Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Scottish Parliament election

In all cases, you should use the maximum possible sizes of font. To ensure consistency, the same font size should be used for each candidate or party for each equivalent line.

Constituency election

Candidates must appear on the ballot paper in the order that they are listed in the statement of persons nominated and their names and relevant details must be printed in accordance with the directions for printing.1

Regional election

The registered parties and individual regional candidates must appear on the regional ballot paper in the order that they are listed as in the statement of persons and parties nominated and their names and relevant details must be printed in accordance with the directions for printing.2 The RRO will confirm the details of the parties and candidates which are to appear on the regional ballot paper after the close of nominations.

Candidate name

Candidate surnames must appear in capital letters, including the capitalisation of surnames beginning with MAC or MC and the names should follow strict alphabetisation e.g. MABBOT, MACLEAN, MATTHEWS, MCCORMICK, MORRISON.

Where a candidate has listed multiple names as their surname, either hyphenated or not, you should reproduce the whole name as provided. For example Dick Van Dyke would appear as VAN DYKE, Dick on the ballot paper and for alphabetisation purposes their surname would start with a V.

Similarly, Ann Smith-Jones would be SMITH-JONES, Ann on the ballot paper and would be listed as an S for alphabetisation purposes.

Emblems

Party list submissions and candidates can request the use of a party emblem on the ballot paper. In these cases you may be provided with a high-resolution copy of the emblem for use in the printing of ballot papers. Alternatively, you may need to download the emblem from the Commission’s website You should ensure that whatever copy is used is in the same form as the registered emblem.

The maximum size of an emblem on the ballot paper is two centimetres square. When adding a party emblem to a ballot paper, the shape of the emblem should not be altered. You should ensure that the emblem is in the same form as the registered emblem – for example, do not stretch emblems into square shapes if they are not registered as square images on our website, as this would have the effect of altering their appearance.