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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 20 December 2024
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Displaying 4180 contributions

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Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Elections Bill

Meeting date: 25 November 2021

Edward Mountain

Pardon?

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Elections Bill

Meeting date: 25 November 2021

Edward Mountain

Right—fine. Convener, I have had enough of—

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Elections Bill

Meeting date: 25 November 2021

Edward Mountain

I cannot hear you.

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Elections Bill

Meeting date: 25 November 2021

Edward Mountain

Okay. There are two things that I want to go back to, if I may. First, we know that holding different elections on the same day does not work. We have seen that, and I totally agree with you on that. I would be very surprised if anyone thought that it would be a good idea to run two different parliamentary elections on the same day. That just does not work.

Secondly, you said that we will not have voter ID in Scotland, which gives me a clear indication that you have decided what will be in your election bill. However, you could not answer a question that I asked earlier about what would be in the bill. You have decided to disclose some parts of it, but you cannot disclose other parts. Is that right?

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Elections Bill

Meeting date: 18 November 2021

Edward Mountain

I have a question on proxy voting. There is a proposal to reduce the number of people for whom an individual person can be a proxy. In the past, I have been a proxy for all my children, and the bill would stop that. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I am not asking whether the fact that I voted for my children, on their instructions, is a good or bad thing; I am asking whether the limit on proxies is a good or bad thing. The proposed limit of two would be quite minimal for a lot of families. I seek your opinion on that.

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Elections Bill

Meeting date: 18 November 2021

Edward Mountain

No, but I was going to move on to proxy voting.

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Elections Bill

Meeting date: 18 November 2021

Edward Mountain

Not on that, convener. I am wondering whether you will let me go on with my next question. I am not being impertinent—I am happy to move on.

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Elections Bill

Meeting date: 18 November 2021

Edward Mountain

Sorry. I will be quiet until Louise Edwards has finished.

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Elections Bill

Meeting date: 18 November 2021

Edward Mountain

I want to make the very point that Louise Edwards has made. It is very difficult to prove whether somebody has voted on somebody else’s behalf if no one in the polling station recognises that. The person could have cast their vote with a postal vote, then taken an electoral registration card down to the polling station, waved it at the presiding officer or poll clerk and been allowed to vote. It is really difficult to prove, as Louise Edwards has said—that is a fact. How do we have absolute confidence that the problem is not bigger than has already been suggested?

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Elections Bill

Meeting date: 18 November 2021

Edward Mountain

Yes—but they would not have to do it just before an election. The point that you made was that what you did was in January, which was in the build-up to the election. If registration for a postal vote was done every three years, the register would be more accurate and there would be less frenetic activity just before elections. That would allow people who are away on business or who know that they will be away for a few years—I am thinking about the armed services, of which I was a member—to renew their postal vote for when they know that they will not be there for an election. Surely there is some merit in that—or is it all just bad news?