Was the Scottish Vote Really Scottish?

Being Scottish was actually not the criteria to be able to vote. The entire criteria was residency. As a result, almost 400,000 people living north of the border in Scotland were actually not Scottish but born in other parts of the UK (reported the BBC back in 2012). The number of Scots living in England, Northern Ireland and Wales had no vote amounting to 800,000 not counting the Scottish in Canada and the United States.
Even if we set aside the question of rigging the vote, it seems that the criteria by itself may have doomed the entire vote. Can you imagine if the right to vote that the United States should merge with Mexico was based upon simply residency?
The turnout for any Scottish vote was no doubt setting all records in this referendum . In total, 4.29 million people registered to vote in Scotland based simply upon residency not requiring any Scottish birth record. It appears that more than 90% of voters turned out. In a similar vote in Canada in 1995 on whether Quebec should secede, 94% of registered voters cast their ballot.

This post was published at Armstrong Economics on September 21, 2014.