Final voting figures on the Covenant

Alan Perry has produced a final tally of the statistics on the Covenant vote (and I've added some comments). 

In all, 3588 people voted in the 44 diocesan synods, including 94 bishops, 1584 clergy and 1910 laity. (Bishops' votes did not count toward the results, but were nevertheless recorded.)

The proposal to endorse the Covenant was defeated by 26 Dioceses to 18. This is a significantly bigger margin than the difference in individual votes. 

It is important to remember that this voting system was devised as part of synodical government. It was never a system of individual votes where people happened to be gathered geographically. 

Matters referred to dioceses under Sections 7 & 8 of the Synodical Measure are proposals for significant change in church life. Therefore the bar which a proposal had to pass was set noticeably higher than 50%+1. The intention was to find a way of ensuring, so far as possible, that a positive vote really reflected sufficient support for change around the country and amongst both clergy and laity. 

Therefore one way of looking at the discrepancy between the votes of bishops and those of the laity and clergy is to suggest that synodical government structures have proved effective. Bishops may be out of step with their people but the synodical system provided an effective brake on their forward march.

Whether the lesson you draw is that diocesan voting should be circumvented or strengthened depends on deeper questions of how you perceive the nature of the church.

Percentages of the vote by houses:

All voters
For the Covenant	Against the Covenant	Abstained
49.25	46.29	4.46
Voters excluding bishops
For the Covenant	Against the Covenant	Abstained
48.43	47.14	4.44
Bishops only
For the Covenant	Against the Covenant	Abstained
79.79	14.89	5.32
Clergy only
For the Covenant	Against the Covenant	Abstained
46.65	49.49	3.85
Laity only
For the Covenant	Against the Covenant	Abstained
49.90	45.19	4.92

Number of dioceses voting for and against by houses:

Bishops only
For the Covenant	Against the Covenant
37	7
Clergy only
For the Covenant	Against the Covenant
18	26
Laity only
For the Covenant	Against the Covenant
22	22

It is clear overall that the Covenant was unable to secure majority support amongst either the clergy or the laity. The bishops voted overwhelmingly for the Covenant.

In 22 dioceses both clergy and laity voted against and only in 4 dioceses was the Covenant defeated in a single house (clergy).

Source here.