Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Scottish Parliament election

Once your election materials have been produced, you need to ensure that all materials have been printed, collated and prepared for dispatch to electors or for use at polling stations without errors.

Quality assurance checks should be conducted as soon as possible to prevent any delays to issue and dispatch.

Checking filled postal vote packs before dispatch

Quality assurance checks of filled postal ballot packs should include that:

• ballot papers and PVS numbers align
• personalised name/address information appears as expected in windows
• each pack contains the correct items (e.g. check that the correct ballot papers and reply envelope are included)

You should carry out random spot checks across all packs to ensure a representative cross-section of at least two packs from each batch of 250 has been checked, this is roughly the equivalent of a full Royal Mail postal tray.

You should keep a clear audit trail of the proofing and quality assurance processes undertaken either by your staff or by your supplier which you can refer back to should any issues subsequently arise.

You will need to consider how you will keep a record of stationery that has been checked to provide a clear audit trail of the processes that have been undertaken and which you can refer back to should any issues subsequently arise.

For more information see our guidance on quality assurance and proof checking of election materials and quality assuring the issuing process.

Checking ballot paper books before allocation

When you receive the printed ballot paper books, before any ballot papers are supplied to a polling station, you should check:

• the first and last ballot paper in every book
• the ballot paper numbers in each book or packet run sequentially
• every detail on the ballot paper is spelt correctly
• every emblem has been validly requested, has been included beside the correct candidate or party list and matches the Commission’s register
• candidate descriptions have been printed in the line ofthe correct candidate
• the voting instructions at the top of the ballot paper match the legislative requirements
• the ballot papers have been cut to the correct size
• the official mark has been included