The Conservatives may have lost control of Hertfordshire County Council in last week's elections, but county-wide polling data shows they received just 345 fewer votes than the Liberal Democrats overall.

Of the 285k residents who turned out to elect Hertfordshire's 78 county councillors on Thursday, 74,078 cast their votes for Liberal Democrat candidates.

And that was enough to win the party 31 seats on the council – the highest number of any of the parties.

Meanwhile the Conservatives – who saw their seats plummet from 42 to 22 – received just 345 fewer votes across the county overall, with 73,733 votes recorded.

Reform – who won 14 seats on the county council – received 68,614 votes overall. And that's just 5,464 fewer than were cast for the Lib Dems.

There were a number of close races across the county – with some candidates winning with a 'majority' of fewer than 10 votes.

And the number of overall votes cast across Hertfordshire show how close the race between the top three polling parties really was.

Conservative Cllr Richard Roberts – who remains leader of the county council until the next meeting of the full council – says that this election was "unique".

Pointing to Reform taking around 1000 votes in many seats previously held by Conservatives, he says he is not surprised that the numbers of votes cast overall were so close.

"This was an extraordinary election," Cllr Roberts told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"The main parties have never polled so low nationally – and it was a three or four and sometimes five-way fight for seats. We have never had that before."

Cllr Roberts suggests that the support for Reform was "a protest vote – very definitely against the established parties of Conservative and Labour", as well as "a response to the message Reform gave". And he says that that "skewed" the election

"The picture could have been very different," he said.

"I am not saying that we would have had overall control. But in Hertfordshire the Reform vote has skewed the election. And the Liberal Democrats now face forming a coalition."

Meanwhile leader of the Liberal Democrat group Cllr Steve Jarvis says the results demonstrate that the electoral system ought to change.

But he stresses that were it to change voters would have voted differently too.

"Clearly we were pleased to be first – and we would have liked to have been first by more than that," he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"It is another demonstration that the electoral system that we have isn't fair. And that it really ought to change.

"And that would change the the way in which people voted as well.

"It would mean a much wider section of the population were represented. And there would also be a need for compromise and joint working."

Cllr Jarvis said that the Liberal Democrats happened to have done better this time in Hertfordshire than in other elections.

But he said that there ought to be a system that reflected the relative support given to each of the parties.

According to the data – obtained from Hertfordshire County Council – Labour received 38,842 votes across the county.

And Green Party candidates – who stood in 76 of the 78 seats – secured a county-wide total of 26,475 votes.

With data showing that Reform candidates received just 5,464 fewer than the Lib Dems across the county overall, party officials say the data shows just how close the battles were for seats across the county.

Regional director of Reform Dave Holland said: "I think what we are seeing from these results is that the legacy parties are no longer having everything their own way.

"In some instances there was a four-way battle going on for seats, which is why we are seeing numbers that are as close as they are."

Mr Holland says the party ranked second in a "huge" number of seats across the county. And he suggested that the results were "incredibly encouraging" for the party.