Ballot boxes all present and correct

Returning Officer George Black supervises the arrival of the ballot boxes.

Within minutes of polling stations closing on Thursday 3 May,  white vans were being packed with the ballot boxes to deliver to the SECC. The first arrived from Jordanhill within 25 minutes. In the course of the following hour, 110 vehicles from City Building and GHA delivered all the others.

They were guarded through the night by security staff  who were keeping a sharp look-out for the inquisitive fox which managed to enter the building earlier in the week. Counting of the votes in this council election was scheduled to start at 9am on Friday morning and will be done electronically.

There was a poor turnout at polling stations according to the sample visited by this website.  Most campaigners at the gates estimated between 10 and 15% of those entitled to make their mark, actually did so. But 50,000 people across the city requested a postal vote and around 70-80% of them were anticipated to have submitted that by the deadline.

At Hyndland Secondary School, one of several places for voters for the Hillhead Ward, 1394 people had slipped their ballot paper into the box out of the possible 5168 on the electoral roll. This would suggest almost one person in four had voted. But another 500 people used a postal vote taking the turnout to nearer one person in three.

The complex single transferable vote (STV) system establishes a quote figure by dividing the number of ballot papers counted in the ward by the number of seats to be filled + 1 and finally adding another 1 to that total.

Glasgow’s Chief Executive, George Black, is the returning officer who announces the results. He is responsible for the election mechanics, security and scrutiny. ‘I expect the job will be done by 5pm on Friday,’ he forecast as he supervised the arrival of the ballot boxes in the SECC.