[arethuza]

Probably based on the level of SNP support in either the local council, Scottish or UK parliament elections - traditionally the Liberal Democrats were strong in the Highlands.

Not sure picking SNP support in an area is a great basis for predicting tonight's results though - a lot of people who would never vote SNP seem to be supporting the "Yes" campaign.

I plan on fast-forwarding through the next few hours with some help from our local water of life.

Edit: This might be a good source for where those number come from:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/vote2012/council/S12000017...

As it was a council election there appear to have been a lot of independents - so the proportion of seats won by the SNP looks relatively small even though they were the largest political party.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Council_election,_2012

[tptacek]

So yeah, that's what I thought, but are there reasons why the Highlands don't affiliate directly with the SNP that are orthogonal to their likely vote?