everybody SHOULD be made to vote

[Jelliedeels]

EU effects us all.

I think everyone should be made to vote that is over 18 years of age.

I'm sure the "I don't know people" still moan at politics and the country .

AIBU

People say if you don't vote you have no say, no right to complain. When actually the opposite could be said...if none of the options speak for you then not voting is the most authentic way to respond. "Not in my name."

I'm not voting because I believe it's already a done deal and we really don't get a say in the matter.
Also, couldn't care either way, tbh.
If I was made to attend I'd spoil the paper anyway.

I would personally rather that only people who had a real engagement with the issues at hand were voting. But then I'm never a fan of a referendum anyway - I think some terrifying things would be allowed if we genuinely counted the the opinions of all eligible members of the voting general public.
And yes, the 'people died so we could vote so we have to do it' brigade have missed the point.

YABU
We need fewer laws not more.
We are bossed around enough in UK.

Yabu but for other reasons.

Have you ever tried to register to vote as a domestic violence survivor?

You have to jump through a million hoops and you have police and court reports which need to be very recent.

Otherwise it is a pain in the arse and many won't let you.

Even if you do manage to register anon they still make mistakes and release details.

How many women don't go to the police, how many just flee?

My friends councils answer was don't register to vote.

YABU. What would be the point in making people that have no opinion or clue, vote? Nothing intelligent would come the other side of it. Whatever their favourite newspaper or broadcaster said would win the day. More media control, you say? No thanks.

Democracy is freedom and that includes the right not to partake in it.

Because at what level of knowledge do you get to vote. Seriously! Only people who have a aet level of education? Who earn a set amount? Who work in a certain industry? What was the point in suffrage then. The leaps forward in yhe disalution of the class system at the end of world war 1? After the suffering that that generation had suffered. Not educating yourself on how it will effect you is absurd and so lazy.

But what if all of the options on the ballot are morally repugnant to you??

We live in a democracy so if somebody doesn't want to vote that is a choice they are entitled to make.

I will be voting. I know a few people that won't vote and I think some people don't vote because they don't understand any politics and government never do anything to make it understandable to the masses.

Well, everyone should want to vote, but they don't. Which is their choice.

I can't bear the lazy argument of 'women died for this so we should all vote eternally and for ever'.

Women died so we would be able to vote. And we are. The fact that some of us choose not to take up that right doesn't demean their sacrifice.

YABU

For all the reasons already mentioned.

I think I am going to vote. I am still trying to find out more about how this will affect me and if I still feel as unsure about which way to vote as I do now I won't vote at all.

clarrrp isn't that opening up the right and freedom to vote to a lot of potential discrimination and exclusion?

I think if you don't understand the issue then you shouldn't have a say. If you a say then take the time to learn about what exactly it is you are voting for. Do I personally people with a complete ignorance of the subject having a say in a decision which will impact us all? Hell no.

OK then clarrrp tell us how what information you used to make up your mind which way to vote. Share your knowledge of the issue... help us make our own decisions.... tell us exactly what it is we are voting for...

I think its disingenuous not to bother voting because you consider all parties to be the same. By not partaking in the voting process it allows us to sleepwalk into increasingly partisan politics. If we don't get those people to vote that feel that they know little about the issues then it makes a mockery of democracy. Everyone has a view on something and the vast majority of people are going to find something in a political parties manifesto that speaks to them whether it's rights for workers or immigration. Everyone should vote. Even if the price of chocolate is important to you vote on that. I know I'm being ridiculous but that is the essence of democracy. If people simply cannot be bothered to vote or can't see the point, well I can't really get my head around that, really I can't.

I'm considering not voting in the EU referendum because I simply have NO idea how to vote. Both options seem right, both seem wrong. The campaigns just aren't helping.

I have this argument with my FIL bearbehind. He insists that the only way to achieve change is via parliamentary democracy. I point out that the big movements for democratic change have all begun at the grassroots outside of parliament - look at the campaign to extend the suffrage to middle class men, then working class men, then women in the UK - or the civil rights movement in the States. All huge campaigns that started in civil society.

The essence of democracy for me is participation - it doesn't have to be via the parliamentary system. And if the system is starting to look so bent that you can't in all conscience vote for any of the parties, then it definitely IS time to get involved at a grassroots level and try to bring about change.

I feel this about the EU referendum. I'm really not a fan of the EU - by the way (with the IMF and World Bank) it foists neoliberalism on developing economies, by the way it has imposed brutal austerity in southern Europe in the interests of capitalism, by its utter moral failure to deal with the migrant crisis, and by its corrupt, undemocratic and apparently unreformable nature. I don't really want to vote 'for' it. But neither do I want to be identified with the proto-fascist xenophobia (and often closet racism) of Brexit. I feel like I'm being told I can vote for capitalism or fascism - and I want neither. I will probably vote remain with gritted teeth because I see the threat of fascism as fundamentally more unBritish than remaining in the EU, but it'll be with a heavy heart.

I am going to go against everything I just said now. I am massively confused about the referendum also. I'm not sure the referendum should have even been offered to the public. No one seems to know what's happening and Boris Johnson is making promises about things he has no control over. He is treating it as a general election. God it's a mess on all sides.

derek

Sorry, that was addressed to bearleft not bearbehind. That's the OTHER politics thread! My apologies. It's hot and my brain has melted

YABU, dictatorship springs to mind

To be honest, I think there are a lot of people who are too bloody ignorant of the world around them to buy a raffle ticket, never mind get the vote.

As much as I think voting is important and always do myself, you can't FORCE people to vote.
Surely the great thing about here is that you have the choice?!

It's a big leap however from saying people should vote or should want to vote to saying people should be made to vote.

Of my friends who aren't interested one in particular couldn't care less. If she were made to vote this is how it would go:
Me- So you voted then?
Df- yes I had to so I wasn't fined
Me- Who did you go for in the end?
Df- the first one/the one with my dad's name/the last one
Me-do you feel more engaged in politics and enthusiastic about democracy?
Df-no I'm pissed off that I had to queue for an hour after work.
Me- at least your opinion has been noted
Df- no my opinion was I'd rather not vote!