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Fun fact: In both referendums on EU membership, less than half the registered voters cast votes for the winning decision.
by lucaspiller 9y ago
Fun fact: In both referendums on EU membership, less than half the registered voters cast votes for the winning decision.
- hardlianotion 9y agoI would be interested in knowing about an election in modern times (you choose what that means) in which a majority of the electorate in a British election did vote for the winning proposition.
- notahacker 9y agoIf you count British Overseas Territories, then Falklands and Gibraltar sovereignty referendums are probably the only examples (I wouldn't be surprised to discover that no free and fair public election has ever achieved a more emphatic result than 99.8% on a 91.9% turnout managed by the Falkland islanders)
- hardlianotion 9y agoGood knowledge. Just glad I didn't offer a prize...
- ptaipale 9y agoIn fact, in almost all referendums and elections, less than half of eligible voters cast their voters for the winning decision or party. That comes pretty much by nature. Then there are elections where a majority supports the winning decision. A few are good ones, like the Falklands referendum that was mentioned in another post. But very many are scams: Saddam Hussein's presidential referendum gave him 99.9 % support of votes in a 99.47 % turnout. Worker's Party of Korea regularly gets around 85-90 % of votes again with a 99.9 % turnout. National Socialist Party of Germany got 98.8 % of a 99 % turnout in 1936. Finally, the point is: "“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.”"