Case studies "West Lothian Council - pupil council elections"

West Lothian Council

Pupil Council Elections - Deans Community High School

 Structure of Pupil Council

• 36 elected members
• Equal gender representation
• 6 elected reps per year - 3 boys & 3 girls per year (i.e. S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6)

Count

• Voters came to the polling place (school theatre) by year i.e. S1 came during period 1, S2 at period 2 and so on.
• The count was conducted at the end of the poll for each year.
• There were 12 separate elections counted, one for a boy and a girl in each year.
• There were two teams of counters each with a laptop loaded with the counting programme. The team included one adult and two senior pupils.

• Elections conducted according to the official 'ERS97@ STV rules.
• Elections conducted using eSTV programme from Electoral Reform Society Obtained from website: www.electoral-reform.org.uk/votingsystems/estv.htm

• Staff arrive in school to set up polling place - 08.00
• 18 staff: 9 Adults 9 Senior pupils
• Polls open for voters 09.00
• 854 potential Voters 700 voted
• Polls close 12.45
• Returned all the results 13.25

Some comments from young people on leaving polls

• Fun, not hard polling booths cool
• OK, understood it, system explained a lot
• You dont vote you cant complain
• Good that you took it serious as it made us take it seriously
• Secret ballot was good - better than hand up in a class
• Felt like an adult makes me want to vote when Im 18!