Schmurnout
Both BondPapers and The Telegram fret the low turnout in the late by-election in Humber West.
Maybe. Maybe not. As measured against the number of people who voted in the previous general election in the same district, turnout in Humber West was 78% — ninth among the fifteen by-elections since 2003; fifteenth among the twenty-one during which Danny Williams was leader or leader-apparent of his party. Not great, but not quite in the basement, either.
But why measure against the previous general election turnout?
Well, because it's certainly a long-shot better than measuring against the total number of electors on the list, when that latter figure is clearly a work of creative fiction.
Labels: by the numbers, by-election fever
posted by WJM @ 7:38 PM
1 Comments:
Two different issues.
I was looking at the general state of the provincial political culture and for my purposes the number of eligible voters is the one to use. It illustrates the extent to which there are a chunk of people more or less permanently turned off from the political system.
You've highlighted an issue in the way the CEO is currently adjusting the list. It isn't really clear what is going on but it smells very fishy.
What you've you done here is focused on another measure that may point to something else yet again.
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