Testing of the Ballot Paper for the 2012 Local Government Elections in Scotland

The Local Government elections in 2007 took place on the same day as elections for the Scottish Parliament. There were a number of difficulties with the elections, including the suspension of counts and a high number of rejected ballot papers in the Scottish Parliament counts. In the immediate aftermath of the election, Ron Gould was appointed to conduct an independent review of the problems encountered during the combined elections. The review recommended that ballot papers should be tested in advance of elections. To this end, Ipsos was commissioned by the Scottish Government to test the proposed ballot paper for the 2012 local government elections. The aim of the testing was to assess the clarity and usability of the draft ballot paper design, identify possible improvements and make recommendations for the final ballot paper. Ipsos conducted three rounds of user testing. In the first round, a draft design provided by the Scottish Government was tested with a sample of 102 people recruited to be representative of the electorate on key characteristics. An additional 16 interviews were conducted with people who had English as a second language (8) and people who had lower levels of literacy (8). In the second and third rounds, amended versions were tested with a further 30 people. For more information, please contact Chris Martin on 0131 220 5699. View the full research report on the Scottish Government website Technical details For the first round of testing, participants were recruited on-street on the day of interviewing. These interviews were carried out across four locations: Perth (4th December 2010, 30 interviews); Aberdeen (11th December 2010, 28 interviews); Edinburgh (14th December 2010, 27 interviews); and Glasgow (13th January 2011, 25 interviews). Participants with lower levels of literacy who were attending literacy classes were recruited separately with assistance from Glasgow Life and CLAN/City of Edinburgh Council. These interviews were carried out in Edinburgh on 22nd December 2010 and in Glasgow on 19th January 2011. The second and third round of testing was conducted in Edinburgh on the 16th and 18th February 2011 respectively. As with the first round, participants were recruited on-street on the day of interviewing. Thirty people were interviewed on each day.