Electoral registration
The earliest form of electoral registration in Scotland was the annual roll of freeholders, compiled under the County Franchise Act of 1681.[1]
The duty of preparing registers of persons entitled to vote in parliamentary or local elections in the counties was effectively given to sheriffs in 1832 by the Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1832. This introduced the requirement in counties for sheriff clerks to provide parish schoolmasters with claim forms for individuals to be registered, for the sheriff clerk to determine eligibility of voters and for the schoolmaster in each parish to publish the resulting electoral roll annually by fixing it to the church door. [2] A similar process was administered by town clerks in the burghs.[3]
In 1856 responsibility for compiling the annual electoral register in burghs was given to an assessor appointed by the burgh for that purpose and the assessor was disqualified from voting in any parliamentary or municipal election in that burgh.[4] In 1861 the County Voters Registration (Scotland) Act gave responsibility for drawing up electoral rolls in counties to the lands valuation assessors who had been appointed under the provisions of the Valuation of Lands (Scotland) Act 1854.[5]
The Representation of the People Act 1948 required counties and large burghs to appoint their assessor as the electoral registration officer.[6] This provision was continued in the Representation of the People Act 1949 which consolidated all existing legislation about electoral registration and the franchise into a single Act.[7] Electoral registers were to be compiled every six months.
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 amended the Representation of the People Act 1949 to require regional and islands councils to appoint an electoral registration officer.[8]
The Representation of the People Act 1983 required every Scottish local authority to appoint an officer of the authority to be registration officer. Local authorities could combine to appoint an officer, and this enabled districts and regions to combine to appoint an electoral registration officer during the two-tier system.[9] In practice, most local authorities appointed the local assessor under the Valuation Acts to be the electoral registration officer for the area.
Conducting elections
Responsibilities for conducting elections were separated from electoral registration. From 1832 until 1977, sheriff clerks and town clerks continued to have responsibilities for determining polling places, polling districts and the recording and counting of votes. This changed when the Returning Officers (Scotland) Act 1977 transferred the administration of elections to local authorities who were required to appoint an officer as the Returning Officer.[10]
The National Library of Scotland holds copies of electoral rolls for all of Scotland from 1946 to the present. Local authority archives services and local library services also may hold copies of modern electoral registers. These are subject to strict access and copying regulations and there are further restrictions on access to registers less than 10 years old.
The survival of earlier electoral rolls is patchy. Some may be found amongst the records of the sheriff courts, as sheriffs were responsible for electoral registration in the counties, and these are held by the National Records of Scotland. Local authority archives services may also hold odd survivals amongst other county records or deposits and will also hold any surviving records compiled by town clerks or burgh assessors.
Compiler: Elspeth Reid (2021)
Related Knowledge Base entries
Bibliography
Butler, D. E., The Electoral System in Britain, 1918-1951 (Clarendon Press, 1953)
Ferguson, W., ‘The electoral system in the Scottish counties before 1832’ in Stair Society Miscellany II (Stair Society, 1984), pp. 261-94
Ferguson, W., ‘Record Sources for the Electoral History of Scotland’ Scottish Archives 4 (1998), pp. 21-31
Griffith, J.A.G., ‘Representation of the People Act, 1949’ The Modern Law Review 13.3 (1950), pp. 348-50
References
[1] Act concerning the election of commissioners for shires, 1681. The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, ed. by K.M. Brown and others (University of St Andrews, 2007-2021), 1681/7/45 <http://rps.ac.uk/trans/1681/7/45> [accessed 19 May 2021]
[2] Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV c.65) s.13.
[3] Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV c.65) s.15.
[4] Burgh Voters’ Registration (Scotland) Act 1856 (19 & 20 Vict. c.58).
[5] County Voters Registration (Scotland) Act 1861(24 & 25 Vict. c.83).
[6] Representation of the People Act 1948 (11 & 12 Geo. VI c.65) s.4(3).
[7] Representation of the People Act 1949 (12 & 13 Geo. VI c. 68).
[8] Local Government (Scotland) Act 18973 (c.65) Sch.3.
[9] Representation of the People Act 1983 (c.2) s.8(3).
[10] Returning Officers (Scotland) Act 1977 (c.14).