Register to vote, even if you’re not intending to vote
October 7 2015Okay, I get it. Politics is a massive turn off sometimes. And where I absolutely believe that every single one of us should vote, I realise that not all of us will. But I really want to stress that everyone reading this should register vote (even if you’re not planning on voting) and I’ll explain why.
1) Politicians and governments monitor very closely the numbers and age ranges of those registered to vote. They look to see whereabouts in the country you live and try to gauge how well off you are. And then they make policies that favour the people who they want to win the most votes from.
Imagine if there was a public outcry from young voters at the removal of EMA (Education maintenance allowance). Imaging if 100,000’s young votes showed their disgust at the axing of EMA by kicking a party out. Politicians would be terrified.
Young people have been known not to engage in the political process. So politicians don’t make announcements of policies that positively affect young people. But what if all young people who were eligible to vote did vote? Politicians would need an immediate change of underwear.. If they thought that a mass of young votes were out there, they would be absolutely forced to start delivering policies that favour young people.
Which brings me onto number 2…
2) You might change your mind.
A party might propose to do something that makes you want to have your say. But without you registering, you can’t have a say. And everyone has the right to have a say, even if you chose not to use it.
3) You can spoil your vote.
Yeah, you don’t want to vote for any of the parties. Again, I get it – but what better way to give them the finger then by spoiling your vote.
(Spoiling your vote is a way of actually voting, but doing so in a way that is deemed invalid – so it’s counted as a rejected or blank vote).
So, why go through all the trouble? I could just stay at home. Well, if you stay at home you’re not counted – if you’re not counted, you’ll never be a priority. Non-voters just become invisible. They are not shown in the election results, and not voting is explained away as public apathy’. By spoiling your ballot paper or blank voting you become a visible protest.
Check out http://www.blankvote.org.uk/
4) Or, even more importantly, vote for somebody you trust to deliver positive change.
In the last general election, 22 million people didn’t vote at all – that twice as high as all the votes for the Conservative Party. Imagine if we’d voted – odds are we wouldn’t be facing one of the most savage, brutal, heartless government of a generation. Registering to vote, and more importantly voting, is the only way we’re going to gain some sanity and remove the band of liars and cheats currently in office.
Voter registration day is a big drive to get people to register, but you have until the 20th April to register to take part in the May general election. But it only takes 5 minutes and you can do it online.
https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
Have a voice, even if you plan to stay quiet.
