To think that younger people don't vote..

[Latara]

Just that really.

I'm 37 and I always vote but I'm the only younger person I know who does bother voting. And I know lots of people...

Do younger people (eg.the under 50s) really not bother voting or is it just in my area (SW)? Please prove me wrong!

It's not surprising that UKIP have been successful when they appeal to mainly older voters (IMO) and older voters (pensioners mainly) are those who vote most.

The real winner of this election is 'nobody' who 'nobody' voted for I reckon.

I'm 29 and have always voted. But a large majority of my friends can't be bothered, mostly because they don't feel represented.

That's the problem - most young people don't feel represented by major parties, because statistically they're not as important as the grey vote. So as less of them vote, less politicians feel they need to appeal to them. And so goes the circle...

Nasturtium89 it's far too late. Voting closed yesterday. Your postal vote needed to be in by 10pm last night. Your postal vote would have details about what you need to do with it and where it should go, and would your polling card if you had that. But it's too late this time in any case.

Anna is right Nasturium. Your polling station details would have been on your polling card. You don't need to take your card with you to vote the polling station staff have a list and would have been able find your details however in your case they wouldn't have issued you with ballot papers as you had already received a postal vote. Postal votes can be dropped off at any polling station in the electoral area and don't have to go to a specific polling station. Bit late now but so you know next time

Ok cool. Thanks. I just realised I didn't even know what the election was for... I thought it was for a new prime minister. Where can I find out about politics? How do people understand it? I can obviously go on each party's website but they will not be very neutral haha. Is there a website that compares all the parties in some sort of handy chart?

I am so sorry I'm such a moron. But clearly - if you don't vote, you can't have an opinion... I do not disagree with that at all! I think I am demonstrating with my posts that I have no opinion whatsoever! Help me >_

I think I prefer the current system to an online one that might encourage the X-factor style voters who just react rather than think carefully. Although the current one seems to favour older, whiter and more middle class people...

I dunno.

I do watch things like Question Time but I can't differentiate between the parties.

Read a paper nasturtium, actually read a few different ones because they all have a political bias. Or follow a few news agencies and pressure groups on Twitter or Facebook for bite sized info. Each time you see something that interests you follow them and see if you like more and unlike those you strongly disagree with or that annoy you.

Here's a brief list to get you started bearing in mind you're here on Mumsnet:

Daily Mail - very conservative, middle-Englandish, much hated on Mumsnet and by Guardian readers.

Mumsnet - liberal, fairly middle class but has a good representation of all kinds of parents including those with disabled children.

The Telegraph - conservative, middle class.

The Guardian - liberal and lefty, middle class.

Channel 4 news and BBC news - notionally politically unbiased but both tend towards the liberal

The Sun - historically conservative but varies and supported Blair's new Labour.

OK. I will do that! Thanks for the breakdown.

Lol at 37 being a 'younger person' in terms of voting - you've had nigh on 20yrs by then!

I presumed you were going to be talking about 18 - 23 yr olds.

My ds is gutted because he's not 18 until next month, so missed out on voting - all his friends / cousins / my friends dcs have all been very keen to vote.

That said, I know the national figures say there's a fairly low % turnout, historically being lower in younger people than older folk.

I'm 35 and have voted since the age of 18.

DSD and her friend were on FB last night moaning about how they didn't vote because they didn't know enough about it. Saying that they should have had lessons at school and been educated on what they needed to do and why. One of their friends posted "You've got no excuse. Educate YOURSELF. I did" which said it all really. It went very quiet after that

i totally agree. i had to explain how the european elections worked to a younger colleague yesterday.

i was clearly the youngest person in the polling station yesterday and im 35

I was stood outside the polling station helping our local Independent candidate yesterday and I saw quite a few young families going in, and a couple of young men - can't have been more than 20 I'd say.

I'm in my 40s and I've always voted and my DS is 21 and he has voted at every opportunity since he was 18 ,I've bought mine up on the idea that if you don't bother to vote you can't moan about what you end up with . As it is where we live my vote ( and that of my DS ) is a bit of a waste of time .

I'm 25, DF is 27 we voted.

So did my parents, who are 44 and 46.

Everyone I know voted (I'm 23)

I'm 35 and have always voted. The novelty of my first vote in the 1997 general election has never worn off for me. I was also raised in a politically active household and was made to go leafleting and canvassing from an early age.
A reasonable number of my peers vote as does DH.
I think apathy and cynicism are not unique to any age group.

My mum never voted (or possibly she did when I was at school?) so I didn't grow up knowing about it. I love seeing people on FB taking their children with them to vote :) I knew you could vote at 18 but I didn't really know what that meant or how to do it. I was also about 17.5 when a general election happened so thought "Oh I'll have to wait ages for the next one." I didn't know that there were other elections.

The next time I had an opportunity to vote I had no idea what to do. I was on the electoral register but I had no idea where to go or how to do it. I wasn't living at home and I had a small baby so nobody really to ask.

By the time the next general election happened I had mumsnet so felt very informed but if I hadn't I would have had no idea.

This time took me totally by surprise. I live in Germany so hadn't had the local election coverage. We got info about the European election but I didn't know what that was and assumed it was something I could leave and look into at the next one. Then all of the stuff about UKIP was coming in and I was confused because I thought the general election wouldn't be until next year. Now I still have no idea whether voting in the European elections would have helped vote against UKIP but I'm regretting a bit that I didn't register. And I tried to check the results for my town of the local election (which I guess I'm not eligible to vote in anyway if I don't live there?) but it's not in any of the lists.

Now I am totally, utterly, freaking perplexed. And going to arrange a proxy vote before the general election. But it is confusing. This is the second time I've had the chance to vote and got caught out by the local thing. How often are the European ones? I can't remember ever hearing about them before, but I might have been totally clueless.

In the group of Mums all older than me (I am early 30's) I am the only one who voted. The others didn't know, couldn't be arsed, thought there is no point or forgot.

I don't understand why it is a massive inconvenience.

I am 30(ish) and have voted since I was 18. DH, DBs and virtually all of my circle of friends all vote. Granted, we don't discuss it much, but from past conversations we all agree that our vote is important even if we don't agree on which party to vote for

DB's 20-something friends all seem to be voting (although admittedly I haven't followed them to the polling station to double-check this). One is particularly keen to cancel out his nan's vote for the BNP so I know it's important to him.

Have talked about this over the years with sixth form friends, uni friends, work colleagues, etc and the majority of people I have known from 18-30 have voted. DH has always voted but doesn't always feel particularly informed about his decision, so this time he took an online quiz to test which political party you side with and voted with the one that came out top.

The biggest 'meh' I've ever got about working is from former work colleagues in their 40s. Well-educated and on decent salaries, company cars, etc.

Nasturtium89 you could have a look at the quiz my DH took - you might not understand all of the issues / some will be more important to you than others, but it could give you an idea about the issues that different parties are focusing on.

Also, have a look here: www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/ to make sure you're registered to vote (and your details, including address, are up to date).

I've always voted, partly because the first time I voted was a couple days after the first free elections in S Africa, and I ended up in Azerbaijan during their first ever elections, but mainly because my dad always voted and it's What You Do.
My friends generally do too, though some spoil their ballots.

Most of the people I know who don't vote live in areas where a donkey with a blue/red rosette would win - where I grew up the vote was about 95% Tory so you could see the point of people not voting in FPTP elections.

Glad to see a good positive response to my OP - it's good that so many younger people are voting, clearly just not people I know for some reason.

I went to vote in the afternoon and there were still the majority of names not crossed off, also a lot of addresses had no-one registered to vote which makes me think it's the immediate area I live in - my polling station serves a housing estate with lots of renters who don't bother to register and move on a lot, and lots of young families and singles.
Although I know my neighbour who is 39 will have voted.

Whereas at my mum's polling station it was very busy and she was the youngest person there (age 65!).
My nan and all her 80 & 90something neighbours used their postal votes.

I remember voting for the first time aged 18 and have only missed one election since then.

(The reason I feel so young at 37 is that I look after elderly people and work and our area is full of elderly people...)