To not vote in the election

[Instituteofstudies]

I can't bring myself to vote for Cameron, Clegg or Milliband. I don't trust any of them to do what they say they will do, or trust them to sort out the NHS, education, the economy. UKIP are dangerous, the Green Party not up to the job either.

I was brought up to always vote because women have fought so that I can. And I do believe that. But if I genuinely can't decide between all the hopeless bunch available, then what to do?

....and to those folks who say by not voting you give up your right to moan....what utter crap! So my taxes, the amount of money I put into the economy by buying things etc doesn't count for anything? Just because I didn't vote in an outdated and unrepresentative election system for a candidate who essentially is the same twat but different tie? I don't think so.

Well you have a right to free speech @darth, but seeing as by not voting, you are giving the decision to those who do, most people will be particularly uninterested by your moaning about the outcome.

It counts for fuck all when you refuse to participate in the democratic process we're lucky to have. As flawed as it may be it's what we have to work with.

The UK have sent soilders to line the route to polling stations to stop voters, who have walked for days to have their say in a process they were denied for decades, getting shot. All you have to do is stroll down to your local community centre.

I bet that none of those names will appear on the OP's ballot paper. They are simply the leaders of political parties. I vote for a person not a party. I suppose, therefore, that you'd call me a floating voter. for years, I voted for a local man who was superb in his constituent dealings although he was a member of the Labour Party. Once he retired, I couldn't find another candidate that looked 'right' so I voted for someone whom I knew would not be elected. I will not vote for our current MP because he does B all for the constituents.

I will vote for someone at every opportunity because women fought for us to have the vote and at least one died for that purpose. Any woman who does not vote probably does not know anything about those women or the hardship they had to go through. If you do not vote, you just discount their efforts and take your right for granted.

Problem is, DarthVaders, that if you don't vote, you're indistinguishable from someone who doesn't vote because they can't be bothered, or someone who doesn't vote because they think the status quo is just fine and doesn't need changing.

Actually spoiling the ballot by writing "I want electoral reform" or whatever in big letters over it would be a much more effective way of getting your point across.

Numbers of spoiled papers are recorded, but what is written on them is not.
Waste of time.
You won't change the system by refusing to engage with it.

chile
Numbers of spoiled papers are recorded, but what is written on them is not.
But it IS read out in front of the candidates

voting for none of them is
very different from
not bothering to vote

one allows them to say you are happy with the status quo
the other states that you are not

Voyage
they do read them to the candidates during the vote - its part of assessing whether votes can actually be counted
and can be DEEPLY humiliating for candidates to hear what people really think of them
remembers a count I helped out on that was funny in so many ways

Really? Not according to the Electoral Commission.
They may show them to the candidates so that the candidates can agree they are spoiled.
Deliberately humiliating people is unacceptable. Unless it's UKIP.

Deliberately humiliating people is unacceptable. Unless it's UKIP.
Exactly