E-counting tech to be used in Scottish elections

Electronic vote counting technology is to be used in the Scottish parliament and local authority elections in 2007.

The full scale use of the e-counting technology in next May's elections in Scotland follows positive feedback from successful trials over the past four months.

The use of e-counting will help with calculating the result following the introduction of the complicated Single Transferable Vote (STV) system, which is being used for the Scottish local authority elections, where voters can make as many preferences on their ballot paper as they wish.

The technology will also allow for a simpler, single ballot paper to be used in the Scottish Parliamentary elections.

Tom McCabe, Scottish minister for finance and public service reform, said e-counting will provide quick and accurate results in the elections.

He said in a statement: "The STV count for the local authority elections is a complex process. E-counting will be able to handle this count effectively and efficiently. It will dramatically reduce the amount of time to complete the count in comparison to a manual count."

The parliamentary election results will be declared first, followed by the local government results no later than a day after voting.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs used e-counting technology in trials during May's local authority elections in England but has ruled out the use of e-voting any time in the near future because of fears about the security of the technology.