Why should I bother voting?

[DarloRich]

This prompts me to ask my question, "Why bother voting?" Here, and in all the constituencies like this one, is there any real democracy, or does FPTP mean that effectively several million of us are to all intents and purposes excluded from the crucial business of choosing a government?

Because it is part of being a good citizen and decent chap - apathy is one of the tools the Tories hope to rely on to limit the damage

If everyone thought the same as you, the Labour candidate wouldn't win

Correct - and the Tories are relying on this to retain seats / limit the electoral kicking they deserve

Anyone who chooses not to vote has no moral authority / right to moan about anything the next government does / doesn’t do.

Agreed

People died in the past in order to enable us to vote in free and fair elections. Everyone should do their duty and go and put a mark on a ballot paper. If you don't like any of the candidates, spoil your ballot. All spoilt ballot papers have to be shown to all the candidates and their agents.

Firm agree!

Absolutely this! I've voted at every possible opportunity since I turned 18, even once turning out to vote in a Parish Council by-election!

Snap - it is an important part of our civic responsibility.

But if the Tories had a chance of winning this seat, and if tactical voting was needed here, then of course I'd vote Labour.

I think for many this election is an opportunity for tactical voting. Want the Tories out? Work out who in your constituency is best placed to do that and vote for them. Don't unseat a Labour MP to do that mind ( looking at you Bristol!)

On a general point I think assuming because Labour will win my vote can go elsewhere is dangerous. Obviously they only win if they get the votes in the first place but your vote for the Greens or Lib Dems might let a Tory retain a seat they should lose or even win a seat.

We need them out and we need them given the kicking of the century. Don't let them off the hook!

PS i know that York Central is solid Labour and that Labour should win York outer but elsewhere things are not so cut and dried.

 

[yorkie]

Only if the people who would vote for that candidate don't assume everyone else is doing it and stay at home.

Very true

If we say that it's a sound argument that there is no point voting because almost everyone else is going to vote a particular way, then if everyone agrees with that view, the entire concept falls down.

On a general point I think assuming because Labour will win my vote can go elsewhere is dangerous. Obviously they only win if they get the votes in the first place but your vote for the Greens or Lib Dems might let a Tory retain a seat they should lose or even win a seat.

We need them out and we need them given the kicking of the century. Don't let them off the hook!

While I agree the priority for most people is to get rid of the Tories, I'd rather vote for a party that mostly aligns with my view; it's just that if I felt I had to vote Labour to keep the Tories out of this constituency, then I would vote accordingly.

I suspect I am in the same constituency as the OP, by the way.

 

[AntoniC]

My constituency of Southport has been a CON hold since I moved here in 1977 but the latest odds show that there is a 98% chance that Labour will win and I will be happy to have helped them to remove the previous Tory MP Damien Moore.
As a Civil Servant of 30 + years (and not a member of ANY political party) I am NOT voting Labour because I expect any large payrises, instead I want a Government that looks like it is run by those who are vaguely competent and for the whole country and not the previous Government who seemed to be only interested in helping themselves and their friends.
I fully respect eligible voters who can`t find an acceptable candidate in their constituency to vote for.

 

[RichJF]

If you don't like any of the candidates or don't believe in any of their mandates; spoil your vote. Make it known you dislike the system & candidates.

Apathy breeds contempt & resentment. It then results in appalling govts, such as the one we have today.

 

[Strat-tastic]

To those who feel that they can't be bothered voting - it's your choice and if you decide not to for whatever reason, I'm not going to come down on you like a ton of bricks. I'd prefer that you spoil your ballot rather than not vote at all, but the whole "people died for the right to vote so you must" doesn't sit right with me; as far as I'm concerned, freedom to participate in a democracy also includes the freedom not to participate.

Indeed. People died also for our right to abstain.
Any compulsion to vote, moral or otherwise, is no freedom.

 

[AlterEgo]

The idea that people died for a right equating to a moral compulsion to use that right is a complete misunderstanding of what a right is in a liberal democracy. I wish people would stop rolling it out. It's meaningless.

 

[Busaholic]

To those who feel that they can't be bothered voting - it's your choice and if you decide not to for whatever reason, I'm not going to come down on you like a ton of bricks. I'd prefer that you spoil your ballot rather than not vote at all, but the whole "people vdied for the right to vote so you must" doesn't sit right with me; as far as I'm concerned, freedom to participate in a democracy also includes the freedom not to participate.

I agree to the extent that I'm utterly opposed to compulsory voting, as practiced in Australia for instance. Dragging people kicking and screaming to the polling station, if only metaphorically, is hardly an advert for democracy and free will. However, please vote if you can.

 

[Welly]

I live in a safe Tory seat so I will vote tactically.

 

[Trackman]

People died in the past in order to enable us to vote in free and fair elections. Everyone should do their duty and go and put a mark on a ballot paper. If you don't like any of the candidates, spoil your ballot. All spoilt ballot papers have to be shown to all the candidates and their agents.

This was my father's doctrine too, and I have stuck by it.

 

[Strat-tastic]

I agree to the extent that I'm utterly opposed to compulsory voting, as practiced in Australia for instance. Dragging people kicking and screaming to the polling station, if only metaphorically, is hardly an advert for democracy and free will. However, please vote if you can.

I already have

 

[RailWonderer]

It's difficult. I'm in a safe Tory seat and I like the local MP, I've met him a couple of times at the November 11th events at the church, but with indirect democracy I'd be voting for a guy I think is insipid, fake and a boarding school lightweight turned banker who is not the kind of person who should be running the country.

 

[Buzby]

I already have

You’ll not be in Scotland then! I’ve a postal vote and expected it last week. Phoning to complain I was told I’d get it by Friday… not by post, but hand delivered by the council! Apparently Scottish Councils are running late necessitating in staff not trusting Royal Mail for the outbound service. So we’ll have just 3 days to get the vote in and counted As the weekend has no postal service.

You couldn’t make it up!

 

[Busaholic]

You’ll not be in Scotland then! I’ve a postal vote and expected it last week. Phoning to complain I was told I’d get it by Friday… not by post, but hand delivered by the council! Apparently Scottish Councils are running late necessitating in staff not trusting Royal Mail for the outbound service. So we’ll have just 3 days to get the vote in and counted As the weekend has no postal service.

You couldn’t make it up!

I haven't got mine, and now we have a unitary council for Cornwall the sort of arrangement you quote above is not available. A duplicate has now been sent, but our postal service here is on its knees with many posties quitting. We have a festival on Saturday meaning post won't be delivered nor post boxes emptied. If it arrives now, I shan't post it but take it in person, which is doable but with added bureaucracy at the polling station. Whatever, I'm determined to vote, even though the polling station in a grand building involves traversing about twenty steps on the outside. Yes, there is a solitary lift, but it's tiny and I suspect there'll be a queue for it, both up and down.

 

[Kaliwax]

First time voter here. Our area and most of the county, are predicted Labour to win. My heart in terms of the manifesto lies with the Liberal Democrats, but at the same time I want to keep Reform the hell away. so might vote Labour just as an extra vote to keep Labour in.

 

[52290]

It doesn't matter who we vote for, unelected Lord Cameron might still be foreign secretary if his party wins.

 

[Busaholic]

It doesn't matter who we vote for, unelected Lord Cameron might still be foreign secretary if his party wins.

That's why it does matter who we vote for so that it can't continue to be the case.

 

[prod_pep]

The idea that people died for a right equating to a moral compulsion to use that right is a complete misunderstanding of what a right is in a liberal democracy. I wish people would stop rolling it out. It's meaningless.

Spot on; couldn't agree more.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

My constituency of Southport has been a CON hold since I moved here in 1977 but the latest odds show that there is a 98% chance that Labour will win and I will be happy to have helped them to remove the previous Tory MP Damien Moore.
As a Civil Servant of 30 + years (and not a member of ANY political party) I am NOT voting Labour because I expect any large payrises, instead I want a Government that looks like it is run by those who are vaguely competent and for the whole country and not the previous Government who seemed to be only interested in helping themselves and their friends.
I fully respect eligible voters who can`t find an acceptable candidate in their constituency to vote for.

Factual correction: if you have lived in Southport since 1977 then for the majority of the time your MP has been Liberal/Liberal Democrat. Indeed prior to Damien Moore it was John Pugh (LD) who was well known as both a regular user and supporter of the railways.

 

[AntoniC]

Factual correction: if you have lived in Southport since 1977 then for the majority of the time your MP has been Liberal/Liberal Democrat. Indeed prior to Damien Moore it was John Pugh (LD) who was well known as both a regular user and supporter of the railways.

Quite right, my bad and thanks for the correction - I am going to blame my age

 

[edwin_m]

It doesn't matter who we vote for, unelected Lord Cameron might still be foreign secretary if his party wins.

There are far worse choices - think of the mess Johnson made in the role.

 

[dangie]

This prompts me to ask my question, "Why bother voting?"…

For an example as to why you should vote, it’s probably because of the Brexit Referendum non-voters that the UK voted to leave the European Union. My guess for what it’s worth, is that many who wanted to remain didn’t vote as they fully expected the Remain vote to win easily so they didn’t bother voting. Those who wanted to leave, did vote.

So yes, you should vote, else you don’t know who you may end up with.

 

[Senex]

For an example as to why you should vote, it’s probably because of the Brexit Referendum non-voters that the UK voted to leave the European Union. My guess for what it’s worth, is that many who wanted to remain didn’t vote as they fully expected the Remain vote to win easily so they didn’t bother voting. Those who wanted to leave, did vote.

So yes, you should vote, else you don’t know who you may end up with.

That was quite different. Every vote really did count, and the issue was one of the utmost importance to me. I certainly voted, without hesitation.

 

[Magdalia]

It doesn't matter who we vote for, unelected Lord Cameron might still be foreign secretary if his party wins.

But Lord Cameron will not be foreign secretary if his party doesn't win, so it does still matter who we vote for.

 

[Bayum]

It’s your democratic right to not vote. It’s your right to spoil your vote. However, voting has not always been a given right - even for white British men. Working class males without property were only given voting rights in 1918 and even that was only because men coming back from fighting in WW1 would have been ineligible. Prior to this, whether or not you owned ‘property’ (which was defined from borough to borough) was the key inclusion criteria.

 

[Jamiescott1]

I am voting for the mp, not the party they represent.
My mp has done a lot for some local issues I feel strongly about and hope that they can continue to do so in opposition.

 

[dangie]

I am voting for the mp, not the party they represent.
My mp has done a lot for some local issues I feel strongly about and hope that they can continue to do so in opposition.

Yes so am I. The other candidates I know absolutely nothing about and they've not even bothered to send me any information. Three of the five candidates don't even live in the area so they are out for a start.

 

[Kaliwax]

Our tory candidate has given her own personal number in her leaflet, not sure that is a very wise idea at all! None of the other candidates have done that

 

[Trestrol]

It doesn't matter who we vote for, unelected Lord Cameron might still be foreign secretary if his party wins.

Like lord Adonis in the Labour Government

 

[PTR 444]

Brexit happened because of this attitude. Get out there and vote!!

I wonder how much of the result was due to people thinking Britain leaving the EU couldn’t possibly happen, so just voted leave as a joke?

 

[dangie]

Our tory candidate has given her own personal number in her leaflet, not sure that is a very wise idea at all! None of the other candidates have done that

Our Conservative candidate gives her full address (street & door number). I too think it’s maybe not he best thing to do, but as she has been our MP for the last nine years and has lived at the same address for quite a few years I’m guessing she hasn’t had any issues.