For me the worst thing about elections is updating
the list of Councillors. It
is assembled from 45 data files and with so many of them changing this year
there was a whole load to amend. The details will be added later after the
Leader has dished out her favours to those without minds of their own.
Meanwhile more analytical minds have been digging into the statistics so that
when the Leader gives her next report to Full Council and claims to be Trusted
by Bexley Residents we will be able to judge whether it is really true or not.
One of the basics for any analysis has to be the size of the electorate but Bexley Council only provides the
percentage of the vote achieved by each candidate and if you ask for the
number eligible to vote they refer you to their website. The number is hidden away
on the
Notice of Poll forms where the number entitled to vote at each Polling
Station is given. You have to add them up for yourself.
In my ward for example there were eight Polling Stations with 1,282, 1,758, 1,653,
1,461, 1,531, 1,521, 1,140 and 1,435 eligible voters. That’s 11,781 people who had three votes each.
35,343 votes. Sally Hinkley topped the poll with 2,033 votes with Esther Amaning
and Daniel Francis trailing her with 1,998 and 1,956 respectively.
The Council’s
website credits Labour with 60% of the vote but in truth only 5,987 little crosses out of a possible total of 35,343
were cast for them. 29,356 potential crosses were not placed next to Labour names.
Is it mischievous to suggest that 83·1% of the electorate didn’t vote Labour in Belvedere?
Belvedere is used here only as an example but while I have been playing with computer code my old friend Nicholas Dowling,
Independent candidate in Blackfen and Lamorbey in 2014, created a spreadsheet with all the numbers,
It showed that Belvedere is typical of the seventeen wards.
See table below which includes who won each ward and the percentages of votes not cast
for that winning party…
Barnehurst - Labour : 80·9
Belvedere - Labour : 83·1
Bexleyheath - Conservative : 82·0
Blackfen & Lamorbey Conservative : 82·7
Blendon & Penhill - Conservative : 81·9
Crayford - Conservative : 83·8
Crook Log - Conservative : 81·4
East Wickham - Conservative : 84·4
Erith - Labour : 81·7
Falconwood & Welling - Conservative : 84·1
Longlands - Conservative : 81·4
Northumberland Heath - Labour : 82·7
Sidcup - Conservative : 84·2
Slade Green & Northend : Labour : 85·6
St. Mary’s St. James - Conservative : 81·2
Thamesmead East - Labour : 83·3
West Heath - Conservative : 80·5
Maybe when Saint Teresa next claims that the Council is Trusted by Bexley Residents she will acknowledge that it’s only
one in five of them.
Is this an argument for compulsory voting or for proportional representation?