London Mayor Election Results Live: Latest News And How To Read The Numbers

What a simple hack!
London mayor candidates Sadiq Khan and Zac Goldsmith.
London mayor candidates Sadiq Khan and Zac Goldsmith.
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Londoners are able to watch the results of the capital's mayoral election unfold in real-time hours before the official declaration by performing a simple computer trick.

London Elects, the group that organises Mayor of London elections, is providing a live read out of 'vote progress' - a representation of the first choice votes counted so far for each candidate.

The Sun's James Manning revealed that officials' attempts to remove the percentage of votes for candidates from the new counter was easily gotten past.

CLICK HERE FOR A REAL TIME VERSION. The graph provides a representation of the first choice votes counted so far across London for each Mayoral candidate.
CLICK HERE FOR A REAL TIME VERSION. The graph provides a representation of the first choice votes counted so far across London for each Mayoral candidate.
LONDONELECTS.ORG.UK

He showed how the London Elects counter's web page could be manipulated to disclose the percentage of votes cast in favour of front-runner candidates Sadiq Khan and Zac Goldsmith.

By opening the page's source code - a string of characters that translates into what a browser displays - users could discover the numbers behind the un-labelled bar chart.

If you're watching the mayoral live-count, but want the figures rather than those bars, look at the source code... pic.twitter.com/YGDDdfv0ik

— James Manning (@JamesManning) May 6, 2016

The figures show that, at the time of publication, the British National Party - removed then reinstated from the official list of political parties back in January - trailing some votes behind the Cannabis Party.

Viewing the source code on the London Elects site currently makes the count as 45%-35% to Khan over Goldsmith. BNP behind Cannabis Party!

— Simon Rothstein (@SiRothstein) May 6, 2016

Users can navigate to a panel displaying the webpage's source code by pressing 'Control + U' on a Windows computer or 'Option [Alt] + Command + U' on a Mac.

The simple hack also reveals the results so-far of other elections taking place in London today, including the London Assembly city-wide and district ones.

Assembly latest (is in source code): Labour 41%, Tory 29%, Green 8%, Ukip 7%, Lib Dems 6% - LDs just hanging onto assembly place, I think.

— Darryl (@darryl1974) May 6, 2016

The official results of London's elections are not expected to be announced until late on Friday evening.

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