FOI Request - 2026 Scottish Parliament Election

Request 101004007812

1. Concerning the Highlands and Islands constituencies and the Highlands Islands electoral region can you tell me the following about the 2026 Scottish Parliament election in Moray Council:

a) By constituency, when did each constituency count begin?

b) By constituency, when did each constituency declare a result?

c) By constituency, what times did the sorting and verifying of ballots for the Highlands and Islands electoral begin and end (with a declaration)?

d) What process was adopted by the returning officer, i.e. in the Highland Council area a so-called “double verification” process was used?

Response 25-06-2026

Constituency Returning Officers (CROs) and Regional Returning Officers (RROs) are not classed as “public authorities” for Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) purposes when acting in their election capacity and are as such, are exempt from the disclosure requirements under the Act. 

However please find the information requested provided as a voluntary disclosure.

1. a) Following verification, which started at 9am, the Moray Constituency Count started at 1.00pm

b) The Moray Constituency Declaration was at 3.15pm
The Moray Regional Count started at 3.45pm with the declaration at 7.45pm

c) Verification at the Moray Constituency Count started and 9am with the Verification Declared at 12:51pm.

d) In the Moray Constituency, both ballot boxes for the station were verified at the same time to allow any ballot papers which had been put in the wrong box to be correctly placed.

The Counting Table then counted each ballot box, their totals were then cross referenced by the Collation Team with the figures on the Ballot Paper Accounts which had been completed by the Presiding Officers in each polling station.

If the figures did not match, the Counting Table counted the ballot papers again. Provided that the counted figures matched twice, that was the number accepted by the Collation Team and entered into the Verification Spreadsheet which then gave the verification figures for the constituency.

If the figures matched, the Counting Table returned the papers to the ballot boxes and gave them to the mixing team and new boxes were taken to verify.