The regular email from my local MP plopped into my inbox and it contained the breakdown of the results for the general election. If you add up the votes cast for each candidate they match the figure for the turnout. Which is probably what you would expect except I know for certain that on at least one ballot paper there was no preference marked.
Does anyone know why spoilt ballots are not recorded in the turnout figure or if they ever were? I did turn out, I did post a ballot paper, I did (rather creatively I feel) register my unhappiness at the current system. Why is my lack of vote not added to the total?
UPDATE: Courtesy of Simon Cooke in the comments comes this video
The returning officer clearly states at 3:08 ish that there were 48,507 votes (65.57% turnout) yet wikipedia and YouGov (links to the BBC) both record the turnout as 48,397 (65.4%). Any idea why the spoilt ballots are dropped from the totals reported and recorded in the records?
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4 comments:
Now there's an idea. My MP ought to be doing that instead of sending out monthly newsletters.
I'll send him an email suggesting it. Thanks Widdi.
There were 110 spoiled or disallowed ballots in the East Worthing & Shoreham Constituency.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg9XpJg85B4
subrosa - I would have thought it should save time, money and CO2 to email people rather than print a newsletter. The only benefit that I can think of for printed material is that every voter has a letterbox but not every voter has the internet. In these austere times every penny saved is a penny less on tax!!
simon - thanks, and thanks for the video link. I'll update the post to include it.
Because they were not votes.
There were 91 spolit papers in Wokingham. I beat the spoilt ballot basket by 5 votes. So I beat my first objective
Wokingham Spoiled Votes
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