That Mock Referendum for Moray Schools!

There was something awfully odd about the results of that referendum on 18th June. The result gleefully declared by a member of the Moray Youth Council (who?) was so far out of step with all the others, it was immediately questionable. (As an aside Moray Council apparently consulted the young re libraries with some odd responses too. Was it this group only?)

The claim was made that all Moray pupils eligible to vote in September were on this voters roll. That means all those in S4,5 and 6 on paper. Well no, as quite a few on the S4 roll will not be 16 until after 18th September - nothing unusual as it depends on the intake dates which do not correspond to referendum dates. Some 1700 youngsters appear to be on the roll.

These youngsters apparently had had talks from all sides and debated the issue. When? Leading up to 18th June? Errr - yes. All of them?

Why the skepticism - well from end of April until 6th or 7th June the SQA exams were in full swing and it would seem other things would be taking priority. Besides the schools have study leave so all the candidates were not in school to participate in talks/debates. Rural youngsters would also have transport issues. The group involved in exams - S4,5 6.

Furthermore to this, many of these pupils would be leaving school once their exams were finished and not all finished on 6th June, by any means. Leavers forms would be completed and the youngsters leave as and when, so the eligible roll would be diminished.  Now its one of the quirks of school administration that school leavers remain on school rolls until the end of the school year, so we've got ghosts on the roll. Some appear to have been 'genned' up to come in to vote. Many knew nothing about it at all, and for many excellent reasons maybe could not come into vote, even if they had known. Thought crosses mind - were these in the know sort of 'selected'.

Now there is every good reason for the youngsters - all of them, get information from all sides, debate it ask questions about it and so on. Well its what all should be doing. What is bothersome, is that far from all those on the 'voters roll' had equal access to information - all the information.Reports are coming in that many did not know anything. Why not?

An equally odd thing thing is that those returning to school after the exams, come back to a new timetable.The whole school move up a year to new timetables. Therefore the eligible voters would now be in S5 and 6 only and not all of S5 are old enough. New S4 are not eligible. These returning youngsters would be concerned with sorting out next sessions' courses, helping with the visiting P7 inductions and not Referendum debates.

As said earlier, the results were odd - very odd and some of the possible reasons are here. It does not appear to have been clear and open to all eligible 'young voters'.