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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

I do not think that is what the amendment says. It states: "““If there is equality of votes at any stage of the counting process””." There is no reference to recounts. I have some sympathy with what the noble Lord, Lord Bach, is saying. On one occasion I stood for the county council and, after all the recounts, there was a dead heat and we tossed a coin. I luckily lost and did not have to serve on the county council—I ended up in the other place instead. In such circumstances, surely you go through the whole process before you reach this stage. The noble Lord, Lord Rooker—very uncharacteristically—has produced a defective amendment.