Nairn and Cawdor ward Highland Council election - only one sleep to go and then the numbers game begins.

Some are calling it vote until you boke, giving preferences to all the 10 candidates all the way down to the one you most don't want as one of your four councillors for this ward. You can please yourself of course voting for just one or as many of the candidates you like but it is a numbers thing. 

Here's what the Highland Council have to say about the process: 

"Voters taking part in the forthcoming Highland Council elections on Thursday 4 May are reminded that in filling in their ballot papers they should use numbers against the name of candidates in order of choice, using 1, 2, 3 and so on – and not a cross.

The system being used to count the votes is the Single Transferable Vote. The ballot paper lists the name of each candidate. To be elected a candidate must reach a set amount of votes known as the quota. The votes are counted in stages. In the first stage, only first preferences are counted. Anyone who reaches the quota is elected. Any votes received over the quota are not needed by the elected candidate and so are transferred to the second preference. If not enough candidates have reached the quota, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated and all of their votes are passed to the next preference on the ballot papers. This process is repeated until three or four candidates have been elected."  More information here. 

We've heard of candidates having to explain the system as they go round the doors. Hopefully not too many people will be put off by the system and there will be a turnout over and above the 44% that voted last time round in 2012. Having said that it can hardly be said that election fever has been to the fore in the past few weeks. There has been the odd outbreak related to the election on social media but no the facebook heather has not been set on fire by the democratic process set in motion by Highland Council.  A last minute imaginative effort by one of the candidates to spark some interest has appeared today however - image here. 

Whatever happens a few issues facing this community are not going to go away and whoever is chosen by the voters will have the Ship to Ship issue in their in tray - full marks for two of the candidates (Michael and Liz) for taking the time out yesterday to go down to the debate at Holyrood to lobby MSPs (images here).

Have a good one Gurnshire and whoever you vote for all the best in the ballot box tomorrow. If you haven't seen any of the leaflets yet here are all the ones that we received at Gurn HQ - almost a full set 9 out of 10.