In November 2019, ahead of the 2019 General Election, Dan Wainwright analysed turnout in the 2017 election, finding that in 8 out of 10 constituencies there were more non-voters than the winning MP's majority.
The effect was that had they all voted for the second placed candidate, rather than stayed away, the outcome would have changed.
In one in six constituencies there were more non-voters than people who voted for the winner.
The data came from the Electoral Commission.
We counted the total turnout, meaning that spoiled and rejected papers were counted among the "voters" rather than the non-voters as these people did still attend and do something with their paper.
- CSV: Non-voters by constituency
- Electoral Commission: Results and turnout at the EU referendum
- Electoral Commission: Results and turnout at the 2015 UK general election
- Electoral Commission: Results and turnout at the 2017 UK general election
- Runnymede Trust: Ethnic Minorities at the 2017 British General Election (PDF)
- Gov.uk voter registration dashboard: Applications by age group
- Danielle Robbins, trainee retail manager
- Safiya Elwin, a 32-year-old fashion student and mother of seven
- Helen Haste, psychologist and emeritus professor at the University of Bath
- Choropleth map: constitencies where non-voters outnumber the majority of the local MP
- Table: Constituencies with the smallest majorities after the 2017 election
- Bar chart: Areas with the largest proportion of non-voters
- Bar chart: Voter registrations by age group
- During the 2017 General Election we also wrote an article on how non-voters can change the outcome of an election
- You can find all election-related stories tagged 'elections'