Local News

Can you count on the election results?

07/05/10 - 3 comments

Everyone seems to have gone a little bit mad with election fever over the last few weeks, so it's no wonder the Express and Echo have managed to completely mess up their mathematics when it came to working out how many people turned up to vote.

The population of Exeter is roughly 123,500 (exeter.gov.uk), the turnout at the election yesterday has been reported as 52,247(BBC News). By our maths, this works out at 42.3% of the population who voted, although the Echo have reported a 67.7% turnout.

We reckon if there was a 67.7% turn out, it would mean around 83,600 people would have made it out in the rain to queue up outside the various schools and public toilets to cast their vote. Either that or the editor at the Echo has plans to cull 46 thousand residents to make the figures work.

Rocket science it's not.