Police probe claims over postal vote leaks
POLICE are looking into allegations that agents for the pro-Union campaign breached election law by ‘taking tallies’ of postal ballots in the weeks before the Scottish independence referendum.
A complaint was made to the Electoral Commission following comments made by Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson after the polls closed.
Speaking to the BBC, she said Better Together campaigners were ‘incredibly encouraged’ by what they had seen at sample postal ballot openings.
Miss Davidson said: ‘We’ve had people at every sample opening around the country over the last few weeks while that’s been coming in. We’ve been incredibly encouraged by the results from that.
‘It is illegal to discuss any of that while any ballot is ongoing, so until 10 o’clock tonight no one could talk about it. But there’s people in the room that have been sampling those ballot boxes as they’ve been opened and they’ve been taking tallies and their reports have been very positive for us.’
Postal ballot openings are held to verify that the ballots are genuine and that the signature and date of birth given along with the ballots match official records.
The Scottish Independence Referendum Act 2013 states that ballots must be kept face down during the process and precautions must be taken to prevent anyone from seeing the votes made.
Agents for the campaigns are allowed to attend but are bound by the act not to ‘attempt to ascertain at the proceedings in connection with the receipt of the ballot papers the outcome for which any vote is given in any particular ballot paper or communicate any information with respect thereto obtained at those proceedings’.
A spokesman for the Electoral Commission confirmed that it had received a complaint about the matter. The body has no remit to investigate breaches of electoral law and police were subse- quently made aware. A spokesman for Police Scotland said the complaints were being assessed.
A Scottish Tory spokesman said: ‘We acknowledge the concerns of the Electoral Commission and will co-operate with regard to any complaints made if asked to do so.’
The developments come at a sensitive time as the fallout from last week’s poll continues.
Some sections of the pro-independence camp have tried to form their own movement, which some have dubbed ‘The 45’ – as 45 per cent of the electorate voted Yes.
Since the failure of the separatist campaign, some pro-independence activists have also organised rallies, to be held over coming days, to demand a recount of the referendum amid fears over counting irregularities.
Earlier this week, Miss Davidson tweeted: ‘This “rally for a revote” stuff is why SNP need to honour Ed Agreement [Edinburgh Agreement, which paved the way for the referendum] & state explicitly vote was fair + binding.’