Voter turnout last night dropped nearly ten percent over 2007, as hundreds fewer voters went to the polls to cast their votes.A few thousand less people came out to cast votes for the PLP compared to 2007, while the number of votes cast for Independents shot up.The total number of votes cast in the general election yesterday was 30,862, a turnout of 70.7 percent, according to Government figures.The number of registered voters for this election was 43,652 .That compares to 41,961 registered voters back in the 2007 election, and a turnout of 75.85 percent, or 32,090.In addition, figures show 14,218 people, or 46 percent of voters, cast votes for the PLP, compared to 16,800, or 52.35 percent, in 2007.Some 15,949 votes were cast for the OBA, compared to 15,161 who voted for the United Bermuda Party in 2007.A total of 695 votes were cast for Independent candidates compared to 67 cast in 2007.The PLP’s Stephen Todd who lost his bid to represent the voters of Constituency 30 agreed that his party’s failure to get supporters out to vote could have been key to the party’s first defeat in 14 years.“We had commitments from a number of the electorate but they did not show at the polls,” he said. “That’s a disappointing statistic from the standpoint that had we had 50 percent of the just over 400 voters that did not show at the polls today the seat would have been retained.“Clearly there’s a message in that — they were unhappy. The disappointment was that they chose not to tell us that.”