Well we are up 250,000 in reach since posting our exploration of the Scottish referendum. I HAVE ANSWERS!! BINGO to democracy. I am posting my entire exchange today with a source close to the process of drafting the Scottish Referendum Bill of 2013, a beautiful and transparent piece of legislation. His explanations really do credit to the potential of civil servants to serve their constituents and support the process of representing them -- and he answers some key questions we struggled with here. The legislation that governs the referendum was drafted and presented to Parliament for Parliament to consider, he told me. NW: “Who asked you to draft it?” Source: “It was government policy to hold the referendum. The Scottish ministers decided they would have it. ... There were two bills: The first was Referendum Franchise Act 2013. It set out who was eligible to vote – for the first time in the UK, sixteen and seventeen year olds could vote. That was government policy. The main referendum act sets out detailed procedures that counting officers have to follow. That is the Referendum Act of 2013. This referendum has a statutory basis so there was one-off legislation for this past one. “ NW: “What do citizens need to do to launch a referendum themselves?” Source: “I wouldn’t get involved unless it was a process the government wanted to organize. Our job is to work with lawyers setting up the rules, etc. For the public to call for a referendum, that would certainly not have any legislative basis unless it went through Parliament. The process here is statutory -- where there has to be a piece of legislation passed to get a referendum on a particular subject.” In other words, citizens CAN launch a referendum on a series of local levels but must lobby their elected officials to initiate a new one on a national level. NW: “To get a new vote, say, citizens would have to lobby their elected officials to draft new legislation to hold a new referendum? As the bills are one off?” That was correct. I made the point that in that case it was not accurate for all of these government officials to assert that this is the last referendum for a generation. If voters kick them out and ask for a new referendum, there is nothing preventing that. NW: “Citizens can launch a referendum on a local council level. Is that correct?” Source: “I believe so but it is not my field.” NW: What is the “register” that the Act allows anyone to see? Source: “People can get to see the register of people who are eligible to vote but not how people voted. The register is held by local counting officers – you can see who is on the register and who is eligible to vote. “ NW: “Where are the ballots now?” Source: “The ballot papers are held by counting officers after the election for up to a year – securely. Where are they? Physically I don’t know. Any questions about how the votes were counted or any suggestions of mistakes, the bill [Referendum Act of 2013] gave the responsibility for all this to the Chief Counting Office, Mary Pitcaithly – she has responsibility for the vote count. The Electoral Management Board supports and advises. “ NW: Is she available to answer questions from the public? How would people reach her or them? Or the Chief Counting Officer’s team…. There are no contact details on the website at all. “ I promised I would look elsewhere as this was not my source’s purview. NW: “If people want an independent verification of the vote how would that happen? If people have problems…what is the process?” Source. “Pichaithly has issued statements saying she is satisfied with the processes were followed. Politicians have also said that they are happy with her assurances.” NW: “I am not Scottish – I am glad she is happy and politicians are happy but what is the mechanism for independent verification?” Source: “Any individual had the opportunity to apply as accredited observers. From memory, 200 plus took up that opportunity. It is one thing that we put in to show the openness of the system.” NW: “Is there any public record of observers’ complaints or objections?” Source: “The Electoral Commission credits the observers and the whole thing is done via the Electoral Commission – they ask the observers to let them have any observations.” I established that as far as we knew there was no public tally or register of observers’ coplaints or concerns. NW: “Who speaks for the Electoral Commission?” Source: “Someone called Andy O Neil. “ NW: I am getting independently confirmed reports that a number of ballots in different conils had no visible barcodes, and it is my understanding that Scottish ballots are obliged by the Electoral Commission guidelines to all have barcodes. There is one report of ballots being torn off of a pad. “ I have personally seen a photo sent us our site of a ballot with no visible barcode. Source: “Any questions, you can speak to the Chief Counting Officer or her team…..That is a question for the Chief Counting Officer. “ NW: “What about the process of Judicial review if people have concerns about the vote process?” Source: “They have six weeks from date of vote to file for judicial review.” NW: “What is the process of filing for a Judicial Review of the vote?” Source: “They just need to approach a court – with whatever their suggestion for review is – and the court will be able to talk them through the process. “ NW: “So in this legislation [The Referendum Ac of 2013] a Judicial Review is the recourse for independent investigation.” It was clear from our discussion that there is no statutory or separate mechanism for triggering an independent review or independently observed recount. Source: “That is the ultimate sanction. If a person really has cause, having not been satisfied by the explanations they received from the chief counting officer or local officials – and there are 32 local authorities, in which each poll in that district was supervised by a counting officer, who in turn was supervised by Chief Counting Officer – then that – Judicial Review -- is the final sanction.”
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 17:02:33 +0000
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