A blunder at a Glasgow polling station left voters being given the wrong instructions as they arrived to cast their votes.
Posters at Notre Dame Primary School told voters to rank candidates in order of preference.
This is how ballots are cast during local elections in Scotland, using the single transferable vote system. UK general elections use the first-past-the-post system and that requires voters to put a single “X” next to the candidate they are voting for.
Glasgow City Council said the error was spotted quickly and the posters were replaced "very soon" after the polling station opened at 7am.
READ MORE: When is the exit poll published and will it tell us who won?
The council also said that votes will still count and that it will use voters’ first preference, meaning nobody would be disenfranchised.
However, a voter informed The Herald that the error wasn't noticed until at least 11am - three hours after the polling station opened.
It’s the latest issue to hit voting after postal vote delays meant many Scots were unable to get their ballots in.
A council spokeswoman said: “The error was spotted very soon after the polling station opened and after the first few voters.
“It was replaced with the correct information.
“No-one has been disenfranchised as the first preference will be taken from the ballot paper.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel