Voting patterns from the LeadMCR elections

Over 10,000 students voted at the recent SU elections, constituting 20% of the entire student body. The final hour of voting saw 1295 voters, a record for an hour of voting for the LeadMCR election.

This is up from last year, but down before the year before that, which had thousands more participants.

The most votes (6147) were cast for Union Affairs Officer by over 1000 votes, while the fewest votes cast was for the Officer for the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health (3984).

However, due to a number of spoilt votes, the vote for the Faculty of Science & Engineering saw the fewest ‘good votes’. While 4164 votes were cast, nearly 400 (391) votes were spoilt, resulting in only 3773 countable votes.

The largest margin was in Activities and Culture – Robbie Beale was, in the first round, ahead by over 1500 votes.

The closest run vote was for Wellbeing & Liberation Officer. Syd King was ahead by fewer than 50 votes after the first round, but due to the transferable nature of the voting system, Aisha Akram overtook, eventually winning.

Students involved in societies were more likely to vote in elections. 1 in 3 students who are in a society voted, compared to 1 in 5 overall.

Some societies were more engaged than others. Taylor Swift Society lead with nearly 60% voting participation.

Drama Society followed closely behind with 58.9% participation, while Roller Society, dedicated to all things roller skates, was third in participation.

Other notable high-voting societies included Women in Science & Engineering (WISE), the Language Society, and Gigs and Bands (GABS).

GABS was set up in 2021 by Robbie Beale, who successfully ran for re-election this year as the Activities and Culture Officer.

In comparison, Durham University’s SU elections had the lowest turnout in decades – only 6.1% of students voted. Durham’s elections for President was uncontested.

Similarly, at the University of Oxford, under 4000 out of approximately 26000 students, voted in elections, representing around 15% of their students.