Voting system for local government (council) candidates
The elections on 3 May 2007 saw a change in the way councillors are elected, and new larger ward boundaries within Perth and Kinross.
These changes were brought about by the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004.
Councillors are now elected under Single Transferable Voting (STV), a form of proportional representation which replaced the previous 'First Past the Post' system.
This means that instead of the previous system where only one councillor was elected for each of the existing 41 wards in Perth and Kinross, there are now 3 or 4 councillors for each of the new, larger 12 wards in the area (see ward map below).
During a local government election, voters will be asked to indicate their preference by numbering candidates in order of their choice, marking the ballot papers with a '1' for the first choice and a '2' for the second choice and so on. Voters can choose as many candidates, either from political parties or independents as they like.
Counting your local government vote
If your first choice has already won enough votes to be elected, or is eliminated because of having the least number of votes, then your vote is transferred to your second choice and potentially on to your third choice and so on, until enough candidates have been elected for the ward.
For more information on how votes are counted, see
http://www.votescotland.com/
