Also worth better highlighting is that a major part of the  rule controversy was that it was  of the registered electorate including those not able to vote as well as those choosing not to Some allowance was made for this httpwwwscottishpoliticalarchiveorgukwbpagesreferendumruleelectoralrollphp but it is argued that that flies in the face of normal democratic protocol  those not voting are not counted as voting one way or another and are deemed to be accepting of the result of those who do vote