Make sure your vote counts

The Chief Counting Officer for the Scottish Independence Referendum is urging voters to make sure their vote counts by only marking their ballot paper with one ‘X’.

Postal voting packs will begin arriving in homes across Scotland from today, Wednesday, and over the following days, to people who are already on the existing list of postal voters, meaning that some people can start voting this week.

Anyone who has applied for a postal vote in the past couple of weeks will receive their postal voting pack around  September 9, with time to return them to Counting Officers by  September 18.

Mary Pitcaithly, the Chief Counting Officer (CCO) said: “I want everyone’s vote to count, whether they are voting by post or in person at a polling place on 18 September. The safest way to ensure your vote counts is to only put one ‘X’ in the box beside the option you want to choose.”

She added: “People should also take great care when completing their postal voting statement by inserting the correct date of birth and signature. Mistakes mean that a ballot paper will not be counted.”

People have until midnight on  September 2  to register to vote in the referendum.  Applications to vote by post or by proxy must be received by 5pm on September 3.

Voters can obtain more information about the referendum and how to vote at www.aboutmyvote.co.uk