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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2018 9:00:15 GMT
I won an election by something like 0.00035% of the vote once. What’s the smallest margin of victory in a council or Westminster election? Or does anyone have any US examples? I think the US Senate election in New Hampshire in 1974 was decided by 2 votes.
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Aug 1, 2018 9:02:41 GMT
As there have been elections which have been tied and resolved by randomly drawing lots, those would be closest. Happens all the time in local elections; not happened in Parliamentary elections since 1886 though.
The narrowest actual margin in any Parliamentary election since universal franchise is two votes - in Ilkeston 1931, Winchester 1997 (subsequently avoided), and North East Fife 2017.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2018 9:04:32 GMT
As there have been elections which have been tied and resolved by randomly drawing lots, those would be closest. Happens all the time in local elections; not happened in Parliamentary elections since 1886 though. The narrowest actual margin in any Parliamentary election since universal franchise is two votes - in Ilkeston 1931, Winchester 1997 (subsequently avoided), and North East Fife 2017. Ah yes. Deciding by lots made the difference between Northumberland CC being NOC or Conservative in 2017. Other close ones in GEs are. Peterborough 1966 - 3 votes Fermanagh & South Tyrone 2010 - 4 votes Leicester South 1983 - 7 votes Any other examples? |
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mboy
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Post by mboy on Aug 1, 2018 9:47:30 GMT
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ColinJ
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Post by ColinJ on Aug 1, 2018 9:58:08 GMT
Other close ones in GEs are. Peterborough 1966 - 3 votes Fermanagh & South Tyrone 2010 - 4 votes Leicester South 1983 - 7 votes Any other examples? Carmarthen Feb 1974 - 3 votes (A bit tenuous, but my cousin's husband's cousin was the Labour victor, Gwynoro Jones) |
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Post by redvers on Aug 1, 2018 10:11:03 GMT
I won an election by something like 0.00035% of the vote once. What’s the smallest margin of victory in a council or Westminster election? Or does anyone have any US examples? I think the US Senate election in New Hampshire in 1974 was decided by 2 votes. Here's an awkward US example. Incumbent Herb Connolly lost the 1988 Democratic primary for the Massachusetts Governor's Council (yep, it's a thing) by 1 vote, after holding the seat for near 14 years.
What's so awkward about it? Connolly was so busy campaigning he forgot to vote in time and turned up to his polling station a few minutes after it had closed...
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mondialito
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Post by mondialito on Aug 1, 2018 12:29:08 GMT
IIRC, One of the Virginia House races last year was decided by just one vote after several recounts. I think it was a Republican hold. |
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Post by timrollpickering on Aug 1, 2018 12:33:20 GMT
Fermanagh & South Tyrone 2010 - 4 votes ISTR the petition on this one accepted that three disputed papers shouldn't have been included in the total but this was insufficient to overturn the outcome, so this may be the closest of all. |
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Aug 1, 2018 12:34:04 GMT
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Aug 1, 2018 12:36:42 GMT
Fermanagh & South Tyrone 2010 - 4 votes ISTR the petition on this one accepted that three disputed papers shouldn't have been included in the total but this was insufficient to overturn the outcome, so this may be the closest of all. Not quite - there was a discrepancy of three between the number of ballot paper issued, and the number included in the count: www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NIHC/QB/2010/113.html |
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Post by timrollpickering on Aug 1, 2018 12:45:12 GMT
IIRC, One of the Virginia House races last year was decided by just one vote after several recounts. I think it was a Republican hold. There have been quite a few one vote majorities around the world. One case with a big name candidate was Flinders in the 1957 Queensland state election; the defeated Labor member was former Prime Minister Frank Forde who was the only former PM to subsequently sit in a state parliament. He challenged the result but lost the resulting by-election by over 400 votes. Had he held his seat he would probably have become the leader of the state Labor Party - all but one of the Cabinet left in the split, the remainer Jack Duggan became leader but lost his seat (as did new deputy Feliz Dittmer) and didn't get back into the state parliament until winning a by-election the same day Forde lost. |
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Post by timrollpickering on Aug 1, 2018 12:47:10 GMT
ISTR the petition on this one accepted that three disputed papers shouldn't have been included in the total but this was insufficient to overturn the outcome, so this may be the closest of all. Not quite - there was a discrepancy of three between the number of ballot paper issued, and the number included in the count: www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NIHC/QB/2010/113.htmlAh - all these contentious elections around Tyrone roll into one. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2018 14:50:06 GMT
Other close ones in GEs are. Peterborough 1966 - 3 votes Fermanagh & South Tyrone 2010 - 4 votes Leicester South 1983 - 7 votes Any other examples? Carmarthen Feb 1974 - 3 votes (A bit tenuous, but my cousin's husband's cousin was the Labour victor, Gwynoro Jones) Jones, as you probably know, defected to the Social Democratic Party. He then joined the Liberal Democrats upon foundation, and remains quite active (on the thinking up policy front) within the party to this day. |
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Post by swanarcadian on Aug 1, 2018 16:35:56 GMT
I won an election by something like 0.00035% of the vote once. What’s the smallest margin of victory in a council or Westminster election? Or does anyone have any US examples? I think the US Senate election in New Hampshire in 1974 was decided by 2 votes. To have won by that sort of margin you must have received a lot of votes. Were you an MP?  |
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Post by greatkingrat on Aug 1, 2018 16:41:04 GMT
A majority of 0.00035% would mean at least 285k votes were cast in order to give a one vote majority.
I wonder if it was a STV election, where you can get elected by fractions of one vote?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2018 16:59:06 GMT
I won an election by something like 0.00035% of the vote once. What’s the smallest margin of victory in a council or Westminster election? Or does anyone have any US examples? I think the US Senate election in New Hampshire in 1974 was decided by 2 votes. To have won by that sort of margin you must have received a lot of votes. Were you an MP? Not quite. The system was STV and there were 13 candidates for 7 positions and I won by less than 1 vote on 2nd preferences (out of 1,220 votes). |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2018 17:01:39 GMT
A majority of 0.00035% would mean at least 285k votes were cast in order to give a one vote majority. I wonder if it was a STV election, where you can get elected by fractions of one vote? 0.428 votes out of 1,220 to be exact. |
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The Bishop
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Post by The Bishop on Aug 1, 2018 17:18:16 GMT
As there have been elections which have been tied and resolved by randomly drawing lots, those would be closest. Happens all the time in local elections; not happened in Parliamentary elections since 1886 though. The narrowest actual margin in any Parliamentary election since universal franchise is two votes - in Ilkeston 1931, Winchester 1997 (subsequently avoided), and North East Fife 2017. Ah yes. Deciding by lots made the difference between Northumberland CC being NOC or Conservative in 2017. Other close ones in GEs are. Peterborough 1966 - 3 votes Fermanagh & South Tyrone 2010 - 4 votes Leicester South 1983 - 7 votes Any other examples? Worcester - Tory hold by 4 votes in 1945. Labour didn't get a real chance to win it again until 1997, when they made no mistake with a majority of 7.5k. |
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Post by andrewteale on Aug 1, 2018 18:12:00 GMT
North Lincolnshire council, 2003: of the 43 seats on the council, the Conservatives won 22 and Labour won 21, giving the Conservatives a majority of one. The 22nd Conservative seat was won by Ivan Glover in Broughton and Appleby ward; he had a majority over Labour's Kenneth Edgell of one vote.
Glover's election was subsequently voided by the election court, which found that postal ballots without the declaration of identity had been wrongly included in the count. The Conservatives held the resulting by-election with a majority of 101.
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Post by No Offence Alan on Aug 1, 2018 18:28:29 GMT
Of actual 1-vote victories (as opposed to drawing lots),
here is Inverclyde West in the Strathclyde Regional Council election of 1990:
LAB 3,151
SLD 3,150
SNP 1,893
CON 1,624
Turnout 46.2%
This must be a candidate for narrowest percentage win in a local government election, due to the size of the electorate.
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