Scottish Election

[KonstantinL]

JESUS CHRIST! How difficult is it to read a ballot paper before you vote?

Someone phoned into Radio Scotland saying this proved Scotland was incapable of being an independent nation. Well I say the opposite. This proves Scotland’s voters are too thick to even fucking vote, proving they are incapable of making political decisions and that the survival of the Union is down to ignorance and stupidity.

Is it really such a surprise that any nation that doesn't demand sovereignty must be idiotic? Obviously not.

Seriously, someone please do this nation a service and educate our people to a standard that they can understand the difference between white and coloured, X and number, single and multiple, because the world just woke up to the news that we are a nation of morons.

[AMcD]

Are you saying all SNP voters know how to tick the boxes correctly yet, and to paraphrase, "idiot unionist party voters" spoil their ballot papers yet some how manage to keep the SNP out?

Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[Seamey]

It's official - half of the electorate have an IQ below 100.

I think its too simple to say that its easy to vote with a x and then a 1,2,3, - obviously the system failed and people got confused or weren't practised in the system. 17000 constituency and 9000 regional votes in Glasgow were invalid. Glasgow Kelvin something like the most educated constituency in the UK - had almost 1200 votes invalid.

The Natural Law Party - remember them? They had a candidate called Blair standing in Maryhill in the 1997 general election - with 651 votes it was their best result in the UK.

[mr moto]

i had no problem, there were posters up inside the polling station telling you how to vote . but sadly there are a lot of people who just cannot be arsed to look or even stop and think about what they are doing for christ,s sake it was,nt THAT COMPLICATED !

[My Kitten]

Oh FFS Chaps!

Of course its confusing, two seperate voting systems, who had that bright idea?

The success of the X system is due to its simplicity, I dont agree with this system but it works with yes the majority of the country who indeed cannot understand what it is all about!!

We should just have totally switched over to the PR system in a single blow! Saved all this crap.

Personally I dont think there was enough information on the new system - I dont read papers/watch TV and I didnt get anything thru the post regarding the new system so you really cant condem people for not having a clue.

People want to have an easy life, not spend it reading reels of stuff on how to do something that previously took 2 minutes, we are simple beings that way.

[Schiehallion]

Electoral Darwinism.

It didn't matter if there was 20 different papers. If each one has simple instructions at the top what's the problem? How do these people manage to take money out of an ATM or tie their laces or anything else technical that life throws at them?

There are some in society who can struggle with such things but as KonstantinL says, no that many FFS!!

It boils down to one thing - lazy thinking. Not taking the time to read and digest a simple instruction because in this Pot Noodle society, everything is done for us.

[Schiehallion]

People want to have an easy life, not spend it reading reels of stuff

Just read this....totally spot on. However I've got to say, no matter how you dress it up, "place an X in one box only" is hardly reels of stuff.

[KonstantinL]

Are you saying all SNP voters know how to tick the boxes correctly yet, and to paraphrase, "idiot unionist party voters" spoil their ballot papers yet some how manage to keep the SNP out?

Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I'm saying the standard of political awareness in this country is abysmal.

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND people did not even know how to vote and not through any fault of 'incompetent government'.

The electorate had to read a simple sentence of instructions above each column in order to fill it in correctly and they either failed to read the instructions or failed to understand very simple instructions.

Scotland is full of people who turn up zombie like to vote and this fiasco just highlights that. If people cannot even vote properly it makes you think if they have read or understood a manifesto or even know what has happened politically since the last election.

Instead of blaming the organisation of the election what about telling the electorate to waken up and actually think for a few weeks every five years.

Oh, and I don't think the council elections and parliamentary elections should have been held on the same day, and I'm not a fan of electronic voting and counting but that's no excuse for the scale of this farago.

The blame falls squarely on the public who fail yet again to take voting even semi-seriously.

[Otis]

Have to say it was a piece of piss,in & out of the polling station in two mins & that included telling a labour guy to mind his business (wasnt really that polite) when he asked me if labour good rely on my vote..Dont really see what the problem was apart from voter apathy as usual ..

[Vladimir]

I'm saying the standard of political awareness in this country is abysmal.

Ive never been anywhere so politically apathetic. Apart from the rest of the UK that is...

[JayKay]

It was the government's fault.

[Otis]

A big boy did it & ran away

[Sharon]

Good usability design could have made it completely intuitive...

[JayKay]

The issue as to why a private company was brought in to 'improve' the counting ought to be addressed, as well as how much they trousered for the privilege.

We should be thankful at least the voting wasn't electronic - as it is in many US elections - so at least there is a paper trail and the possibility of a recount.

[Sir Roger DeLodgerley]

How do you know they weren't all spoiled deliberately? Mine was.