Carnoustie & District By-Election
3 February 2011
A by-election will be held in the Carnoustie & District Ward of Angus Council on Thursday 3 February following the retirement of Councillor Ralph Palmer.
The following pages give you some information about this election and the voting system for local government elections.
You can also find out about postal and proxy voting, how to make sure you are registered to vote and which polling station you should go to.
Voting
The system of voting for this election is the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system.
On the ballot paper you will be asked to number the candidates in order of preference, placing a “1” against your first choice, a “2” against your second choice, a “3” against your third choice and so on. You may vote for as many or as few of the listed candidates as you wish. The candidates you vote for may be from the same party, from several different parties or be independent candidates.
Counting of Votes
The verification and the counting of the votes will take place at Angus House, Orchardbank Business Park, Forfar at 10.30am on Friday 4 February 2011.
The votes will be counted electronically and the successful candidate will be the first to reach the quota. The quota is calculated by dividing the total number of valid votes cast for all candidates by the number of seats (in this case 1) + 1, and then adding another 1 to that figure.
If no candidate reaches the quota on the first round when all first preferences have been counted, the candidate with the least votes will be eliminated and their second preference votes will be redistributed. A candidate may now have reached the quota. If not, the same process will be repeated eliminating the next candidate with the fewest votes until a candidate reaches the quota and is selected to fill the vacancy.
Nominations
If you wish to stand as a candidate at the by-election, nomination papers can be obtained from the Election Office, Angus House, Orchardbank Business Park, Forfar. This office is open for the issue and delivery of nominations papers on weekdays (excluding Monday 27 December 2010, Tuesday 28 December 2010, Monday 3 January 2011 and Tuesday 4 January 2011) from 10.00am to 4.00pm.
Completed nomination papers must be delivered to the Election Office at the above address by 4.00pm on Wednesday 12 January 2011.