The total number of votes cast at British general elections has obviously increased as the size of the electorate has increased. The 1832 Reform Act did something to increase the size of the electorate but the main expansion in the Nineteenth Century came with the 1867 Reform Act for urban Britain to be followed by the same in 1884 for rural Britain. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act allowed women aged 30 or over (with property qualifications) to vote for the first time and this did a great deal to increase the overall size of the electorate.
1832: 827,748
1835: 611,182
1837: 797,989
1841: 593,444
1847: 482,429
1852: 743,894
1857: 716,549
1859: 565,500
1865: 854,572
1868: 2,333,251
1874: 2,466,122
1880: 3,359,216
1885: 4,638,235
1886: 2,974,163
1892: 4,598,319
1895: 3,866,282
1900: 3,523,482
1906: 5,626,091
1910: 6,667,400
1910*: 5,235,238
1918: 10,786,818
1922: 14,392,330
1923: 14,547,695
1924: 16,640,279
1929: 22,648,375
1931: 21,656,373
1935: 21,997,054
1945: 25,095,195
1950: 28,771,124
1951: 28,596,594
1955: 26,759,729
1959: 27,862,652
1964: 27,657,148
1966: 27,264,747
1970: 28,344,798
1974: 31,340,162
1974**: 29,189,104
1979: 31,221,362
* = December
** = October