Ukip claim victory in online poll - but all is not as it seems

Less than 48 hours ahead of the polls opening, we asked readers to take part in an online ballot.

Results are in and, despite the Conservatives dominating previous general elections in south Bucks, Ukip claimed a majority with 34 per cent of the vote.

Labour and the Conservatives were joint-second, each claiming 20 per cent of the vote, with the Lib Dems receiving 15 per cent and the Green Party 10 per cent.

But before Nigel Farage’s party opens the bubbly, it should be noted that of the 202 votes cast in favour of Ukip, only 98 distinct browsers were used – on average that’s more than two votes cast from each computer.

Upon closer inspection, the BFP can reveal that 50 votes originated from just one computer and 45 votes from five computers.

In fact, the number of votes cast compared to the number of distinct browsers used do not add up for any of the parties.

Now, let’s focus on the Conservatives and Labour – both of whom received 20 per cent of the vote.

A total of 119 votes were cast for the Tories from 101 distinct browsers.

Whereas Labour received 116 votes, which originated from 85 distinct browsers – 10 votes of which came from just one browser.

Next we have the Lib Dems who received 90 votes from 71 distinct browsers, followed by the Green Party with 59 votes from 44 distinct browsers.

So, what does this all mean?

Looking at the vote-to-browser ratio, Ukip storms ahead with an average of 2.1 votes cast from each browser.

The remaining political parties are fairly evenly spread. The number of votes deriving from each distinct browser, on average, ranges from 1.2 to 1.4 votes.

Therefore, if we were to look at solely the number of distinct browser votes cast then of the total 399 distinct browsers used, the Conservatives received the most amount of support with 101.

Ukip is in second place with 98 browsers, followed by Labour on 85, then the Lib Dems with 71 and finally the Greens with 44.