Voters in an area in the north of Glasgow with a historically low turnout were sent two polling cards leading to fears confusion over the correct venue may disuade some from attending.
People living in the G20 postcode area of the city received a polling card earlier this year specifiying that they should attend Gairbraid Parish Church but were later sent another card advising them to attend the area's Burgh Halls.
A council spokesman said this wasn't an error but said it had been forced to source an alternative location because of the sudden closure of the church.
One voter who contacted The Herald today said he was unclear which venue was the correct one because no explanation had been given for the duplicate cards.
He said the correct polling station was actually the Glasgow Club venue which is next to the Burgh Halls.
It is understood the church was closed for health and safety reasons.
The 2017 council elections saw a 38.9% voter turnout in the Maryhill and Springburn constituency with 5730 valid ballot papers and 206 rejected ballots.
Polls opened at 7am this morning and will close at 10pm.
While overnight counts have been the norm, Scotland’s counting will take place on Friday, with final results expected in the early evening.
The Single Transferable Vote (STV) will be the electoral system employed during voting, where Scots will be asked to rank their preferred candidates by number, with one being the most preferred.
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “The church hall was the original polling station – however, it was closed by its owner shortly after polling cards were posted, meaning an alternative location was required.
"New polling cards for the Burgh Hall were issued to all effected electors.”
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