So I just finished my final exam of the year.  Let the holidays begin, all 4 months of them.  I'm glad my exams are over, but I am not optimistic about my success in them.  Unfortunately my ability to absorb information was faultering throughout my study period. 

I'm heading home for the summer and my parents don't have broadband, so unless I can convince them to get it soon, I may be off the site for a while.  May be able to post here and there, but living with dial-up connection is insufferable.  To make up for that I will be overly active on the site for the next week or so, so if I bug the crap out of anyone during this period I apologise.  I'm going to be like a squirel storing up nuts (TV.com activity) for hibernation (staying at home )

May 4th - I've woken up to the news of a farcical day of voting in Scottish Parliament and Council elections.  An estimated 100,000 people have spoiled their ballots...and I am proud to say I am one of those idiots.  Everyone in the political arena have been saying that it was a failure of the electoral system, and common folk like me have been calling it a triumph of weeding out those too stupid to vote.  I'm with the politicians, which has to be a first. 

The election yesterday involved 3 ballot papers.  Two involved putting a cross in the box next to 1. The preferred party and 2. your preferred candidate.  The third ballot, for council elections, involved ranking candidates in order of preference.  This simply means putting a 1 instead of a cross next to your favoured candidate, and if you wish ranking the rest 2,3,4, etc.  I erroneously placed a cross in all three papers and instantly realised my mistake, but nothing can be done to fix it.  After so many years of FPTP cross balloting, crossing ballot papers was simply instinctive.  By separating the two elections the majority of these mistakes could have been avoided.

I'm not denying the fact that I'm and eejit, but I feel that the delay in the postal voting system led me to vote in haste in order to get my ballot back in time.  I knew of the new STV system for council elections, and not only that I have studied the system in the past while the issue of introducing proportional representation into Scotland was being debated.  Mistakes happen when people are put under unnecessary pressure.  As a result, my council vote is invalid.  Also I am not entirely sure of the validity of my Scottish Parliament votes.  The rules for voting invalidates any paper that has been folded as the electronic system cannot read the ballot.  Since I voted by post, I was forced into folding my paper since the envelope provided was too small to house the paper without doing so.  If all postal votes have been treated this way then the outcome of the election could be entirely unrepresentative of the actual votes cast.

Just listening to the news, I heard that election officials at polling stations were informing voters of the 'correct' way to cast their vote.  Even they were getting it wrong.  Telling people to place a cross in all three ballots.  The system has failed on an extraordinary level.  With this election being so important to the future of Scotland, a re-election must take place if after reviewing spoilt papers voter intentions show an entirely different outcome.

Democracy failed the people today, and people failed the democratic process.  100,000 spoiled ballots, 50% turnout of registered voters (truly only around 35-40%), postal voting delays and inadequacies and electronic failure.  The executive were warned that this would happen by the Conservative party and the Independent Electoral Commission, but went ahead regardless.  The system weren't ready and nor were the people.  Embarrassment all round.

The Results are in at 6pm - 20 hours after polls close

Scottish National Party - 47
Labour - 46
Conservative - 17
Liberal Democrats - 16
Green Party - 2
Margo McDonald - 1

As a result the only coalition that can conceivably be formed is between the SNP, Liberal Democrats and the Green Party.  Even this only gives a 1 seat majority.  Labour, Lib Dems and Greens may try to form a coalition taking them to 64 from 129 leaving them without a majority at all.  The conservatives will never join in a coalition and the Lib Dems will only form a coalition with the SNP if they drop their plans for an Independent Scotland referendum. 

The next few days will be interesting if you like politics.  I love it, but others may think I am insane.