Ballot paper fate is sealed

VOTERS could be asked to put their ballot papers in envelopes instead of folding them under new arrangements being considered for Scottish council elections.

Officials fear that electronic counting machines could reject ballot papers with creases but they want to ensure voting remains secret, so they have suggested voters could be asked to take the papers from the voting booth to the ballot box in a folder or put the voting slips in an envelope.

However, they warned the envelope option would increase costs and delay counting.

The ideas are part of a consultation on changes to local elections.

Other ideas include listing candidates in a random order after alphabetical order was shown to disadvantage candidates who came towards the bottom of the ballot paper.