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The Herald Scotland

Scottish Greens confirm recount after 'software error' in process

Mi-Voice, their new voting system supplier, informed the Scottish Greens of a "software error" the day after the candidate lists were announced and has since apologised. Since then, the party has said a "full revised count" has taken place and they have confirmed that the 15 lead candidates remain selected. It comes after The Herald reported that the ex-internal elections officer Kate Joester quit over 'an anomaly' in the party's list selection results. A Scottish Greens spokesperson said: "The Scottish Greens are a proudly democratic party that gives every member a voice in our decision-making. "We sourced a third-party provider to host and count the ballot papers for this year's selection process for the Holyrood election. Following concerns raised by members who had reviewed the voting data, party officials sought advice from the third-party provider on Monday afternoon. The party was assured that the counting had been completed and confirmed to meet the standards requested under our internal party rules. "During further investigation by the third-party provider, they later discovered a software error in an external programme used to count votes. The party was first made aware of this on Tuesday morning. "Party officials were not aware of this error at the time of previous statements, and had been reassured by the third-party provider on Monday afternoon that all counting had been completed and verified. "Following a full revised count with oversight and verification from current party officials and those involved in previous Holyrood selections, we can confirm our full list of candidates for the Holyrood 2026 campaign. "All of the previously announced 15 lead candidates remain duly selected and will continue to lead the party's campaign to elect a record number of MSPs. "We would like to thank the volunteers and staff who worked to identify and resolve this situation under extreme pressure and to Mi-Voice for their cooperation in resolving the error. We understand that this has been a stressful process for candidates and members, and we thank them for their vigilance, patience and trust. "We are looking forward to working with our strong Green candidates in this election campaign, in which we'll present our positive vision of a better future where people and planet are put above corporate greed" Mi-Voice has said it was only later on Monday, the day the lists were announced, that they identified "anomalies" in the count which they said impacted how votes were transferred This is the first time the Scottish Greens have used Mi-Voice to carry out their selection processes. The Director of Mi-Voice, Simon Thomson said: "Mi-Voice were contracted by the Scottish Green Party (SGP) to provide the voting platform for their candidate selection process. We undertook that work and provided SGP with results, which they then published around midday on Monday 21st July 2025. "At around 2pm, we were contacted by SGP office-bearers seeking clarification about the production process of the results. We responded to say that the process had been undertaken according to the agreed procedure. "Later on the same afternoon, following further discussions, it came to our attention that the count sheets provided for the Holyrood selection results appeared to contain anomalies. "Following a thorough review, the anomalies were traced to a technical fault with the vote counting software provided by a trusted third-party supplier, which was used in place of the Mi-Voice counting system due to the specific STV rules required. The technical fault impacted the transfer of following preferences in cases where a candidate had been withdrawn from the count to create the ordered list. "Although our internal procedures for producing and verifying results were followed, this technical problem was undetected prior to the distribution of the original lists. We notified SGP office-bearers of this issue at around 10am on the morning of Tuesday 22nd July. "The third-party software in question is a widely recognised and industry-standard vote counting tool. We have since reported the issue to the software vendor and have implemented a solution that enables accurate list production moving forward. Using this revised process, we have produced updated candidate lists, which have undergone additional manual validation to ensure they represent the final and accurate outcome. "These corrected lists have now been shared with the Party." "We acknowledge the concern this has raised for Party members and candidates. We understand the frustration and confusion, and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and concern it has caused. "To ensure this does not happen again, we are reviewing our internal quality control measures and introducing enhanced checks, particularly for scenarios involving candidate withdrawals to facilitate the production of ordered lists. "We remain committed to transparency, responsiveness and continuous improvement." READ MORE: Late bid for Scottish Greens leadership contest announced Greens election official resigned over 'anomaly' in results Maggie Chapman knocked from top of Scottish Greens list The Scottish Greens regional candidate lists come as the party is currently in the process of electing new co-leaders. Patrick Harvie has announced he will not run for leadership again, however, his co-leader Lorna Slater has made her bid to be re-elected for the top position. So far, four candidates have put themselves forward for the top spots in the party. MSPs Lorna Slater, Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer have put in their bids to become co-leaders and, today, South Scotland Holyrood candidate Dominic Ashmole announced he would run.