Scotland votes

Today is the day people in Scotland vote either “yes” or “no” on whether to end their 307-year old union with England — and become an independent state.

97-per cent of eligible voters have registered. That’s more than 4-million people which — for the first time — includes 16 and 17-year olds. Regardless of the outcome, there will be a lot of unhappy people. Early polls have the vote nearly split — with the no side slightly ahead. Voting concluded at 5pm eastern time. We’ll continue to follow the story as the votes are being counted.

There are a lot of people in this region from the United Kingdom, and they are all paying close attention to what’s happening across the pond. Some of them are gathered tonight in west Hamilton at a pub with a particularly Scottish sounding name — ‘The Wee Dram’.

Andy Heron supports the ‘no’ side: “I think about my mother, she’s an old-age pensioner, the health care. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Good luck to Scotland, either way.”

Betty Wilson supports the ‘yes’ side: “If I lived in Scotland, I’d want to see the independence. They’ve wanted that for a long time so I would vote yes. Somebody’s going to be disappointed, either the ‘no’ or the ‘yes’ side. But good luck to both sides and just let them get on with it.

They remain united even though this is a very decisive vote. We won’t get the final results until early Friday morning. Everyone around the world will be keeping their eyes on the vote for the duration of the evening. And we will have the results first on First Edition at 4am and Morning Live which begins at 6am.