Glyn sez, "The BBC are reporting that ballot scanning machines used in the Scottish elections rejected tens of thousands of votes without any human adjudication. The Scotland Office ordered the machines to reject some kinds of the new style ballots automatically.

"The Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond described the development as 'astonishing' and deeply disturbing. 'I was under the impression - until this revelation - that the ballots that were rejected were actually seen by the election agents as part of the process,' he said. More than 140,000 ballots were spoilt on 3 May when votes were held for the Scottish Parliament.

"If you want to read in more detail about the e-voting trials in the UK check out the the Open Rights Group's election observers' report. It paints a grim picture of crashed computers and concerns about the systems' security and reliability." Link (Thanks, Glyn!)