to get extremely frustrated with people who 'can't be arsed' voting?

[Nancery]

I have unfortunately had, or heard, this conversation a few times of late, most notably with my sister. She works as Bank staff in the NHS (nurse), rents (pays extortionate rent, incapable it seems of saving for a deposit), and is usually the sole earner in her family (fuckwit husband is a plumber 'who can't find work) and has two kids, both under five. She and fuckwit husband appear to actually find it funny they 'cant be arsed' and 'have better things to do' and can't see how voting for anyone, or reading up on things, would be a good idea in their circumstances.
I have since heard a few, colleagues rather than friends, saying similar.
I'm no politics buff but even I can see the importance! Grrr

Independent options may not be a persons choice tho'.

Tanith- often there is no independent or they're just some disenfranchised Tory Or they're low calibre.

Not many true independents running for office, Martin Bell and that chap who won in the Wyre Forest I suppose. As someone said above, they're usually Tories anyway; even Lord Sutch was one really.

Drives me nuts

YANBU. Great cartoon, Suffolk.

If people don't want to vote for any of the prospects on offer, GO AND SPOIL YOUR VOTE, preferably by writing "None of the above".

That way you use your vote to make your point, which is what you want. And you reduce the chances of your unused vote making someone else's choice "count double".

Pensioners are the group most likely to vote and have suffered the least in the recession. Young people are the group least likely to vote and have suffered the most.

Ask her if she thinks there's any connection.

YANBU
like the cartoon Suffolk

And actually every vote does (and doesn't) count.

I agree that it's probably a few thousand floating voters in marginal seats that decide every election, but every vote still counts. They are all added up and depending on how many votes each party gets they're entitled to more or less press coverage in the next election.

I've never voted, but I do plan to do so this time. I'm not sure how to do it, though.

I am really, truly far too jaded to vote anymore.

It doesn't make the blindest bit of difference to anything.

Identikit Lying Wanker A or Lying Wanker B will get in, regardless. In case of coalition, Kingmaker Lying Wanker C will go with whoever offers him the best position/perks/whatever, without the slightest concern for what anyone who voted for his party may have wanted. No election was ever settled by one postal vote and I'm not going to kid myself that my vote matters. It doesn't. Even if I were the sole voter, but still only had those three wankers to choose from, it wouldn't matter.

In addition to jumping through all sorts of stupid hoops to even get registered, I'd have to go an queue at my Embassy and put up with their stupidity as well. All I'd do is waste precious time off in an exercise in futility when I'd be better of doing, well, pretty much anything else.

The person who suggested that if you don't vote, you don't get to criticise the system needs to have a damn good think about what they just said.

Spoilt ballot papers are not counted so those who do that aren't making a point.

I prefer it that people who cannot be arsed don't vote, because I'd rather a candidate I didn't want got in on committed votes, rather than the disaffected being herded into polling stations compulsorily and imposing their 'eeny meeny...' choice on me.

Even if there was an option for None Of The Above, I wouldn't like to guarantee that they'd X that one.

I've always lived in safe seats and the safety has never been my way. I will vote in this election but I can't be arsed in local ones. That's a valid decision. I like the way my council is run, even though I wouldn't vote for the ruling party. Unfortunately my local party of choice and the ward candidates they put up are a shower of shite

I think there's only a minority of seats in this country where it WILL actually make a difference if you vote or not. If you lived in one of them then yes you should definitely vote. If not then, sadly your vote won't make much difference under our current system.

However I do understand the moral obligation to vote, especially as a woman, just wish there was a fairer system.

What's the quote, ' whoever you vote for, the Government always get in'? Or words to that effect.

These are the 100 seats that will apparently swing the election.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-general-election-100-seats-to-watch-out-for-in-may-10004084.html

Spoiled ballots are counted, Limited.

My MP doesn't even have to get off the toilet to be waved back in. But it's important to me that my preference is clear, so I'm voting. And there's always the very slight chance people here have had an unexpected change of heart. I'd be well pissed off if the ballot was close, and I hadn't cast mine!

Love Suffolk's cartoon.

About a year ago I was chatting to my boss in Scotland and jokingly asked if he would be voting Yes to independence. He told me that he'd never voted and that he had zero intention of breaking his "streak". This is a very intelligent, highly thought of individual btw. I immediately went, "but....suffragettes!" and he laughed and we said no more about it, but I did think slightly less of him. Fast forward to September, all the hype about a Yes result looking possible and he tells me that he'd had to run out and register to vote last minute because he was scared it might actually happen. I suppose some people need to feel like they have something to lose in order to engage politically.

Are they Gralick? I always thought they weren't. Thanks for pointing that out.

I still wouldn't trust the disaffected to go to the trouble of writing 'none of the above' rather than just putting an X in any old box. And that goes for having a 'none of the above' box, unless it was right at the top with big arrows pointing at it and read 'none of the below'.

It really doesn't matter who I vote for, the Conservatives will hold my constituency as it is an ultra safe seat (only approx. 20 seats in the country are safer).

According to www.voterpower.org.uk/ my vote is worth only 0.019 of the average vote and voters in more average areas of the UK have more than 16 times more influence than I do. I will vote, in the knowledge that it is pointless, but I am >< this close to "can't be arsed".

I like the whole theatre of going to vote anyway political anorak that I am

Anyone who thinks their vote doesn't count needs to check the statistics from last time (and allow for boundary changes).

I live in a marginal. At the last election it could have gone any way of three directions. This time round the Lib Dem vote is liable to collapse. This means that 13000 votes are going to be pretty unpredictable. The majority (adjusted for boundary changes which make it even more marginal) is less than 1500.

This is the scary thing; anywhere with a fairly big Liberal Democrat vote - regardless of whether they got the seat or not, is a potential wild card seat imho. I think we could see some pretty big swings in some areas. Possibly unprecedented swings.

And of course there is the other wildcard of UKIP lurking.

Aside from that, I do find reporting on the election very frustrating at the moment as there is so much focus on polls which mean dick all in a first past the post system.

If, for example, Labour are wiped out in Scottish seats, it makes no difference at all if they have 33 odd percent in the polls, as they have lost a significant number of seats.

This election more than any other, your vote counts. The numbers involved are surprisingly small and turnout is liable to be a lot lower than it should be, meaning any vote cast carries even more weight.

I do think its a rotten choice, but I also fear certain scenarios too. Particularly ones that are the result of apathy.

The biggest irony for me, is people are so scared of certain parties they vote tactically rather than for the party they really want. And if they all did vote positively rather than negatively there might be a completely different candidate that wins. I think its voters attitudes as much as politicians attitudes that therefore stagnate our politics, because people are in this misguided mindset that there vote doesn't matter and that they can't change anything.

Good example: Tatton was regarded as one of the safest Conservative seats in the country. It currently George Osbourne's which reflects how safe it is.

However it has previously been Neil Hamilton's, then Martin Bell stood as an Independent on an anti-corruption ticket.

We are not bound and strangled by party politics unless we choose to be.

I'd vote where you are RedToothbrush - I'm going to anyway even though I get a bit weary of hearing that the suffragettes died for us.

I also agree with you about tactical voting. I think that at the best of times but particularly in this election.

people are in this misguided mindset that there vote doesn't matter and that they can't change anything

Slightly annoyed at being called misguided .

Liberal Democrat turnout is negligible in my area - if every single Lib Dem decided to vote Labour, the Tories would still have a clear 30% margin.
If half the previous Tory voters choose to vote UKIP AND all the Lib Dems vote for Labour - the Tories still win. If Labour, Lib Dem, UKIP, BNP and every other non-Tory party pooled their votes - the Tories would still win by a clear 20%.

The most likely outcome is that there will be a swing to UKIP and BNP, but I'm not sure they can really threaten the Tory 60% of the vote...especially when (anecdotally) it seems to be local Labour voters are turning to UKIP as much as Tories.

As I've said, I will vote but with no hope of making a difference.

Mildly acquiescent I agree totally. Party politics delivers the same lies and corruption every single time and having done a lot of reading in the last few years it is obvious some of the strings are pulled from way above the front men we see in tv debates. I personally think tat if less people voted the current system may collapse and force change.

Either vote for who you want or spoil your ballot paper but for gods sake, vote! We've got a democracy some countries would kill for and the less we vote, the more those at the top will think they're invincible and punish those at the bottom - students and young people are just starting to realise this.

You don't have to use the power of your vote wisely, but for goodness sake, use it to show the politicians that you have that power!

People who don't vote and then make any complaint about the 'state of the country' or anything politics related are steaming hypocrites.