The Cost of Voting

Its interesting to see how much money and effort different parties put into elections, and compare them. The telegraph has donte this at http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/jonathan_isaby/blog/2008/08/06/counting_the_cost_of_defeat_in_the_henley_byelection

Labour's humiliating fifth place at June's by-election in Henley is just one of the factors which has contributed to the Government's current woes - and the party's 1,066 votes there didn't come cheap. Figures just released by the Returning Officer show that the Labour candidate, Readings own basher McKenzie, spent over £14,000 on his campaign, meaning that each vote (1066) cost him no less than £13.25. Their near bancupcy contributed.

Whilst the victorious Tories and second-placed Lib Dems virtually maxed out on their expenses - both spending in excess of £95,000.

The prize for efficiency goes to the Green candidate, Mark Stevenson, who came a respectable third. He spent a mere £1,055.75 to win his 1,321 votes - equivalent to only 80p per vote.

The Monster Raving Loony Party claims to have spent nothing on a campaign which elicited 242 votes from the good people of Henley. The BNP by contrast spent a fortune at £4,744 to get a paltry 1243 votes.

Eleventh-placed Louise-Anne Cole of the Miss Great Britain Party went through nearly £8,000 to win her 91 votes - equivalent to a mouth-watering £84.51 per vote. See where they get their money from at http://greenreading.blogspot.com/2008/07/glamour-politics.html

Here's a reminder of the election result along with what each candidate spent:

Candidate (Party) Votes spent spent per vote
John Howell (Con) - 19,796 (£98,016.82) 4.95
Stephen Kearney (Lib Dem) - 9,680 (£95,237.36) 9.84
Mark Stevenson (Green) - 1,321 (£1,055.75) 0.80
Timothy Rait (BNP) - 1,243 (£4,744.06) 3.82
Richard McKenzie (Lab) - 1,066 (£14,121.42) 13.25
Chris Adams (UKIP) - 843 (£17,056.00) 20.23
Bananaman Owen (Loony) - 242 (nil) 0
Derek Allpass (Eng Dem) - 157 (£2,095.00) 13.34
Amanda Harrington (Miss GB) - 128 (£9,327.36) 72.87
Dick Rodgers (Common Good) - 121 (£447.41) 3.7
Louise Cole (Miss GB) - 91 (£7,690.59) 84.51
Harry Bear (Fur Play) - 73 (Return not submitted) (bad bad bear!)