{"id":19066,"date":"2026-04-18T09:22:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T09:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/?p=17902"},"modified":"2026-04-18T09:22:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T09:22:59","slug":"and-the-winner-is-the-absent-voters-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2026\/04\/and-the-winner-is-the-absent-voters-party\/","title":{"rendered":"And the winner is…The Absent Voters Party"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Since 1999 of the roughly 4 million people registered to vote, those actually voting averaged out at around 2.2million. That\u2019s a difference of 1.8 million \u2013 meet the Absent Voters.”\u00a0 George Thorley<\/strong> makes the case for an active, participating democracy (on behalf of \u00a0of The Mercat Group* of former Council CEOs\/Parliamentary Returning Officers)* Register to vote by 20 April.<\/span> <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI hereby declare that Candidate X has been elected to represent this Constituency.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the great joys of being a Returning Officer is that after all the complex planning associated with running an election from candidate lists, to printing ballot papers, and vote counting it is with some pleasure and relief  that you can finally announce,..the winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However in all six Scottish Parliamentary elections since 1999 of the roughly 4 million people registered to vote, those actually voting averaged out at around 2.2million. That\u2019s a difference of 1.8 million – the Absent Voters. Additionally in each of these six elections the numbers voting for the largest party has been consistently topped by this Absent Voters total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe Returning Officers should have been announcing,\u201d And the Winner is \u2026. The Absent Voters Party\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s Going On?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A large part of the answer lies with the accuracy of the Electoral Register containing the names and addresses of those entitled to vote. With an annual update process, and people moving home not re-registering, the Register goes out of date relatively quickly. Additionally recent research undertaken by the Electoral Commission found that inaccurate or non-registration was particularly high with voters in the 18-34 age group, those living in private rented accommodation and those living at their address for less than a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the accuracy of the Register, digging into the reasons as to why people don\u2019t vote is harder to come by.  The negative impact on the public of a series of poor political decisions directly affecting individuals – including the grinding years of Austerity impacting the welfare of tens of thousands of people must have turned many of the electorate away from politics and voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equally the unfulfilled political promise of Brexit and the subsequent damage to our economy could well have reduced faith in politics.   Others point to the serious political mismanagement of the Covid pandemic and its longer term negative impact on community health and the NHS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Group we also believe that the practice of successive Scottish Governments to hoover up services from Local Government has weakened the ties between local people and their locally elected Councillors, and as a consequence, has further alienated the public from the democratic process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The obsession of successive Scottish Governments to increase the role and power unelected Quangos with no local democratic accountability reinforces this alienation. Plans to create another Quango – More Homes Scotland <\/em>\u2013 making it the 134th Scottish Quango will simply add to our spaghetti junction landscape of countless organisations with often differing priorities and objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it\u2019s fair to say that for many Scots the cumulative impact of all of this is that many have given up on democracy, local and national accountability and have opted out of voting at elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Not Change the Voting System?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a Group we have advocated examining the strength of democracy in those countries where compulsory voting is the norm. There must be valuable lessons for example from Australia\u2019s 100 years\u2019 experience of compulsory voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also believe that introducing an on-line option for voting, given the public\u2019s almost universal ownership or access to mobile phones merits detailed examination. This could be especially attractive for the 18 \u2013 34 age group mentioned earlier with the added benefit of building them into our core democratic processes at an early age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a radical change to the existing system, but the increased acceptance of voting by post seems to have gained considerable traction with over 1 million Scottish electors now choosing to vote this way. Enhanced advance publicity outlining this option might also encourage greater participation in voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7th<\/sup> May and Two Votes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Assessing the value of the two radical options mentioned above will undoubtedly take time and until things change each elector has two votes on the 7th<\/sup> May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One vote for an MSP to represent their constituency, where the candidate with most votes wins the seat. There are 73 Constituency MSPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second, the Regional List vote, where electors can vote for a political party (or an independent candidate) from a list.  These second votes are collected on a regional basis with each of the eight regions in Scotland having seven MSPs.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To ensure fairness these votes are counted using the D\u2019Hont system which allocates votes on a proportional basis. There are 56 Regional List MSPs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two Reminders:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Check your name and address is accurately recorded on the Register of Electors via your local Electoral Registration Office by the 20th<\/sup> April deadline (see at gov.uk\/register-to-vote)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encourage family and friends to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also apply on-line to vote by post (a postal ballot) by the 21st April deadline via your local Electoral Registration Office. To locate your ERO type in your post code at electoralcommission.org.uk<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

**Bill Howat, Phil Jones, John Mundell, George Thorley, Gavin Whitefield, Keith Yates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

However in all six Scottish Parliamentary elections since 1999 of the roughly 4 million people registered to vote, those actually voting averaged out at around 2.2million. That\u2019s a difference of 1.8 million – the Absent Voters. Additionally in each of these six elections the numbers voting for the largest party has been consistently topped by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":386,"featured_media":4553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[730,125],"tags":[761,760,712],"class_list":["post-19066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-politics","tag-electoral-system","tag-scottish-election-2026","tag-scottish-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/386"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}