By-Elections results for Banff and District and Inverurie and District
Two by-elections took place on 3rd November 2016, to fill a vacancy in each of the Banff and District (Ward 1) and Inverurie and District (Ward 11) wards of Aberdeenshire Council. The vacancies had arisen because of the death of Councillor Iain Gray and the resignation of Councillor Martin Kitts-Hayes respectively.
Three candidates contested the Ward 1 by-election, after which Iain Taylor (Scottish Conservative and Unionist) was elected under the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system. The other candidates were Alistair Mason (Scottish Liberal Democrats) and Glen Reynolds (SNP).
In Ward 11, Colin Clark(Scottish Conservative and Unionist) was the successful candidate, ahead of Alison Auld (Scottish Liberal Democrats), Neil Baillie (SNP) and Sarah Flavell (Scottish Labour Party).
The election count for both wards was conducted electronically in the Garioch Sports Centre, Inverurie, on Friday, 4 November and the first preference votes for each of the candidates was as follows:
Ward 1 (Banff and District)
ALISTAIR MASON (Scottish Liberal Democrats) – 526
GLEN DAVID REYNOLDS (Scottish National Party (SNP)) – 962
IAIN TAYLOR (Scottish Conservative and Unionist) – 1,170
After the application of STV rules, Iain Taylor was elected at the second stage.
Ward 11 (Inverurie and District)
ALISON MARGARET CAMPBELL AULD (Scottish Liberal Democrats) – 755
NEIL BAILLIE (Scottish National Party (SNP)) – 1,164
COLIN CLARK (Scottish Conservative and Unionist) – 1,302
SARAH PATRICIA FLAVELL (Scottish Labour Party) – 139
After the application of STV rules, Colin Clark was elected at the third stage.
The turnout in Ward 1 was 29.5% and in Ward 11 was 30.4%.
The formal Notice of Election can be found here along with a list of polling places and the by-election timetable.
Various electronic count reports can be found below.
Declaration of results report – Banff and District (PDF 3KB)
Election results report – Banff and District (PDF 4KB)
Declaration of results report – Inverurie and District (PDF 3KB)
Election results report – Inverurie and District (PDF 4KB)
Preference Summary Report for both Wards (PDF 5KB)
Transfers Report for Banff and District (PDF 4KB)
Transfers Report for Inverurie and District (PDF 5KB)
Preference Profile Report for Banff and District (PDF 9KB)
Preference-profile-report-inverurie-district.pdf (PDF 20KB)
Preferences by Ballot Box for Banff and District (PDF 25KB)
Preferences by Ballot Box for Inverurie and District (PDF 38KB)
How to understand the voting information from the Banff and District and Inverurie and District Ward By-Elections
The Returning Officer has made voting information from the Aberdeenshire Council By-Elections in the Banff and District and Inverurie and District Wards available to anyone who wishes to find out more about how voters ranked the candidates in order of preference.
The first line of the report shows how many candidates there were and how many councillors were to be elected. The subsequent lines begin with the number of voters who ranked the candidates in the same order. There then follows the order that those voters used. For example, the row in bold below shows that 71 voters gave their first preference to the candidate who appeared first on the ballot paper, and their second preference to the candidate who appeared second. The names of the candidates in the order they appeared on the ballot paper is given at the end of the report.
The figure ‘0’ means that there were no more preferences given to any candidate by voters who used this sequence. The final ‘0’ on the last line shows that the report has finished, and no more sequences were used.
71 1 2 0
If you have any questions about these reports, please contact the Aberdeenshire Elections Office on 01224 665119 or elections@aberdeenshire.gov.uk.
Preference by Ballot Box
Rule 61 of the Scottish Local Election Rules requires that in a contested election where the count is conducted by means of an electronic counting system, the Returning Officer must within one week of the declaration of the result of the poll, give public notice of the number of first and subsequent preferences for each candidate cast at each polling station.
Where less than 200 votes were cast at a polling station, the Returning Officer must aggregate that information with information from one or more polling stations in the same ward.
The methodology for combining batches of less than 200 votes is available here.
In releasing the data, the Returning Officer is making it freely available for public use. It is not subject to copyright and material may be re-used provided that it is acknowledged, not used in a misleading way and is reproduced accurately. The Returning Officer does not accept responsibility for any alteration or manipulation of the data once released.
For more information please contact our Election Team.