On June 9th, AKB48 held their third annual general election, resulting in cheers and tears all around. But now that the results have officially been tallied, exactly how many people voted in AKB48's most recent election?

According to the press, a total of 1,166,145 votes were cast between May 24th and June 8th. Of those votes, 779,090 were ballots that came with their latest single "Everyday, Kachuusha"; the other 387,055 were the single free votes given to each member of AKB48's official fan club. This means that over half of the people who purchased a copy of "Everyday, Kachuusha" (which has sold approximately 1.45 million copies) voted for their favorite member in the general election.

The sheer number of people who voted is more stunning when last year's results are taken into account. During the group's second general election, only about 380,000 votes were cast for the entire election. First place winner Oshima Yuko won the election with a mere 31,448, which would have barely edged her into the media senbatsu in the 2011 election. Furthermore, the number pales in comparison to the number of votes this year's winner Maeda Atsuko received, which totaled 139,892 votes by the end of the voting period.

Without a doubt, the huge jump in the total number of votes is only a reminder of how far the group has come in the past year.

Source: Asahi
Tip: eyeless