Scottish Parliament 2026 - Electoral Commission report
Following a planned review of the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, Moray Council's Returning Officer notified the Electoral Commission that two items of paperwork from a polling station could not be located following the election and count.
The paperwork did not contain ballot papers or voting information, however it did include the publicly available information of voter names, addresses, electoral register numbers and voting attendance from the polling station in question.
Moray Council also referred the matter to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) who did not take the matter further while providing advice on how to avoid similar issues in future.
Karen Greaves, Returning Officer for the Moray Council area, said: "I believe in full transparency around the election process, which is why we made the Electoral Commission aware that a corresponding number list (CNL) and marked register from one polling station cannot be located. Having investigated fully, and thoroughly checked all paperwork retained from the election, including confidential waste, we concluded that human error resulted in both documents being mistakenly discarded after the close of polls.
"This does not affect the outcome of the result of the election in Moray, as the ballot papers issued at the Polling Station were verified at the Count, and I am confident in the integrity of the counting process. I am, however, sorry to the small number of voters whose names and addresses were on the list that was incorrectly discarded. These details are already available in publicly accessible records for the election and we have no reason to believe they're at risk of being used adversely in any way. Our evidence shows the paperwork was destroyed soon after the election.
"Updated, and more robust, training procedures will be in place for the next election and we're strengthening our support for staff to help them complete their duties fully and correctly."