The people of Scotland are voting on whether the country should remain part of the United Kingdom or become an independent nation, and the United Kingdom awaits the results. This is the timetable covers how the next 24 hours will unfold.
Polling stations
Polling stations opened at 07:00 in 2,608 polling stations across Scotland. Your nearest polling station can be found at About My Vote.
Polling stations will close at 22:00 after the people have Scotland have had their say on the future of the country.
Vote counting
At 22:00, ballot papers from each polling station will be brought to a location in each of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas to be counted along with the 789,024 postal votes already submitted.
After each local authority has tallied the votes, the counting officer in each area will inform chief counting officer Mary Pitcaithly in Edinburgh of their numbers.
Results
Once an area has submitted its results to Pitcaithly, it will make a declaration of the result with her approval. The bulk of these local declarations are expected to come in between 03:00 and 06:00.
After all the areas have declared their results, Pitcaithly will announce the final result of the referendum and whether Scotland will remain in the union at around “breakfast time” on Friday morning.
An exact time for the final declaration of the result has not been made, but the result is expected between 06:30 and 07:30.
However, running totals, which can be made from the first declaration onwards, could indicate a result earlier in the morning.
1 Comment
Hi,
Referendums are a system of direct democracy for example in Switzerland we have many three or four times a year The Scottish referendum was not democratic, for example over a million Scots in England can not vote. This may have with the inexperience in making referendums to do. Such things as postal votes and premature voting is usually normal.