The Electoral Commission was passed a copy on January 14th 2015 of the Labour Party’s legal advice arguing that the counting of votes at postal vote openings was legal. This is confirmed in the following internal email from Bob Posner,…
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“The Labour Party (and no doubt others) want to tally as usual”: Electoral Commission in January
Posted in postal voting Tagged with: bob posner, electoral commission, gavin millar, Gerald Shamash, labour party, postal vote counting, postal vote sampling
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Postal Vote Sampling: “Labour Party would not advise campaigners they should not undertake this activity”
The Electoral Commission have just published the minutes of their Parliamentary Parties Panel meeting on 3rd March which triggered the sharing of the Labour Party’s legal opinion included and discussed in a previous post. At this meeting Mike Creighton, Labour…
Posted in postal voting Tagged with: electoral commission, labour party, mike creighton, postal vote counting
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Labour Party Argued in December that Postal Vote Counting Was Legal
On 29th December the Labour Party received legal advice from Gavin Millar QC of Matrix Chambers that the tallying or counting of postal votes at postal openings was not an offence under the Representation of the People Act. Why they…
Posted in postal voting Tagged with: electoral commission, gavin millar, labour party, postal vote counting, postal vote sampling
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Scottish Parliament Report Touches on Electoral Fraud Allegations
Following the Electoral Commission submitting their report on the Referendum to the Scottish Parliament and the Devolution Committee hearing evidence from electoral administrators and from the Electoral Commission, the Electoral Committee has today published its Report on the Electoral Management…
Posted in postal voting, referendum Tagged with: electoral commission, electoral fraud, independence referendum, postal vote counting, Scottish Parliament
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Putting Voters First?
The Electoral Commission was created following the recommendations of the Fifth Report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life produced by Lord O’Neill in 1998 which argued for “a totally independent and authoritative Election Commission with widespread executive and…
Posted in postal voting Tagged with: electoral commission, postal vote counting, scottish independence referendum
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Labour’s Non-Denial Denial of Postal Vote Sampling
Last Sunday and the Sunday before the Sunday Herald reported that Susan Dalgety, recently appointed as Jim Murphy’s Director of Communications, had tweeted comments implying she knew the results of postal vote sampling in the referendum. Tom Gordon reported that…
Posted in postal voting Tagged with: non-denial denial, postal ballots, postal vote counting, postal vote sampling, scottish referendum, susan dalgety
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Scottish Labour’s Postal Vote Sampling in 2007: Acceptable in the Noughties?
I stumbled across a blog post by the London-based Tory blogger Iain Dale from 3rd May 2007. He highlights an article from that day’s Independent by Andy McSmith on Labour’s campaign for the Scottish parliament elections held that day, which…
Posted in postal voting Tagged with: 2007 Scottish parliament election, andy mcsmith, iain dale, postal vote counting, scottish labour, the independent
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Timing of Postal Vote Openings
Prior to 2001 the sampling of postal votes in elections was of little value to candidates and their agents because the number of postal votes was low and the envelopes were opened only shortly before the count, giving them little…
Posted in postal voting Tagged with: john mcternan, postal vote counting, scottish independence referendum
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Why was the Electoral Commission report so uncritical of the conduct of the Referendum?
In December the Electoral Commission gave the conduct of the Scottish Independence Referendum a glowing endorsement. In the foreword to their review John McCormick, Electoral Commissioner for Scotland, states ” I am pleased to report that the referendum was well run”.…
Posted in postal voting Tagged with: electoral commission, postal vote counting, scottish independence referendum
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Electoral Commission Confirm That Police Are Still Investigating Postal Vote Sampling
The Scottish Independence Referendum Act requires the Electoral Commission to lay a report before the Scottish Parliament “on the conduct of the referendum”. This report was laid with the Parliament today. The Act is vague about what the report should…
Posted in postal voting Tagged with: electoral commission, humza yousaf, postal vote counting, postal votes, ruth davidson
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