Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Scottish Parliament election

There are a variety of methods for arranging verification and count processes at an election, and there is no one size fits all approach that can be applied. Each area has its own set of local circumstances that will influence the decisions you must make, in discussion with the RRO, as part of your planning for how you will safely and securely deliver the verification and count processes.

As CRO, you are responsible for the counting of votes for both the constituency contest and that part of the regional contest that is included within the constituency.

If you are also the RRO, you are responsible for collation and calculation of the number of votes given for each individual candidate and political party in the regional contest, and calculation of the allocation of seats for the electoral region and declaration of the regional result.

When deciding how to organise the verification, count and result collation processes, you will need to consider other relevant practical factors that will affect the organisation and timing of the verification, count and result collation, such as:

• the size of the constituency
• the geography of the constituency
• size and capacity of venues
• turnout
• the ability to ensure transparency for candidates, agents and observers
• the cost of using the venue

When planning the delivery of the verification and count you should keep your general planning assumptions under review to ensure they continue to be realistic and robust. This should include reviewing your plans at the close of nominations when the number of candidates is finalised and revisiting your assumptions on turnout, speed and capability of count staff and expected timing for completing the various count stages in light of this.

Such a review will help inform a realistic assessment of whether you will be able to deliver your overall plan, and whether and when it may be necessary to implement contingency plans. In all cases your plan should be flexible enough to allow you to respond if any of your assumptions change, or if any known risks materialise and should cover what contingency actions you will take in such circumstances.

Your plan should also identify key points during the count process at which you will review progress against the expected schedule. This progress review should be used to keep the candidates, agents and the media informed of the progress of the count.

If you are also the RRO, you should be satisfied that the verification plans of CROs in your region are designed and managed sufficiently to secure an accurate result in which everyone can have confidence.

If you are also the RRO, your plan should additionally cover the resourcing and management of the results including the development of a protocol for the transmission and receipt of the election results from CROs. For more information see our guidance on results collation and seat allocation.

Decision making

You should keep a record of all steps taken in order to be able to provide an audit trail demonstrating your decision-making process. You should be able to explain your decisions, and you should be prepared to do so in response to enquiries.

To help build confidence in your plans for the verification and count, you should share information and consult and engage on your plan with stakeholders. You should communicate throughout your planning process and be prepared to explain the reason for the decisions you are taking. For key decisions, you should provide your reasons to stakeholders in writing.

You should identify in advance those decisions about the management of the count to be taken in consultation or agreement with parties, individual candidates and agents, and make clear to them on what basis you will be making decisions. This includes, for example, decisions on recounts1 and the suspension of the count.2 While you should seek input from those affected or interested to inform your decision-making, the responsibility for making decisions remains with you. You will need to decide the best way to communicate these decisions once taken.

Documentation

In preparation, you should produce templates of all documents which will be completed at the verification and count and ensure staff are familiar with them. Colour coding the documentation can be an effective way to quickly locating the relevant documents.

Equipment and set up

You will need to decide what equipment you will need to administer the verification and count and to communicate with the parties, individual candidates and agents and anybody else attending the count, including: 

• public announcement systems
• phone lines
• mobile phones and mobile signals
• general IT equipment, including WiFi, and spreadsheets for recording verification and count figures
• equipment for verifying the personal identifiers on returned postal votes (if the final opening of postal votes is to take place at the verification venue)
• screens for displaying any relevant information throughout the count

You will also need appropriate equipment to communicate your local count totals to the RRO who has responsibility for the collation of a regional result.

We have prepared a checklist to help relevant staff ensure that all materials, including stationery and equipment required at the verification and count venue are present.

You can find the checklist in the verification and count section of our resource page.

We have also developed guidance to support you should you need to procure any equipment.