To wonder why turnout for local elections is always so low?

[ScreamingValenta]

I was looking at the turnout for my area in yesterday's elections and it was very low - like most other areas which have declared. It doesn't seem unusual for the majority not to vote.

I always vote, although I admit sometimes struggle to find a reason to vote for one candidate over the others.

I'm not criticising anyone's choice, but I'm curious to know why people apparently don't want to vote - is this down to disillusionment with the parties/candidates, apathy, or other reasons? Does anyone have any thoughts? If you didn't turn out yesterday, why was this?

I'm another one who nearly missed this election. We had poll cards back in March and not a dicky bird since - no leaflets, no canvassing not even any signs on lamposts. I assumed it was because we are such a safe Labour seat. All Councillors bar two are Labour and it seems that the opposition don't want to waste their money and Labour know they are onto a sure thing and can't be arsed.
Two of the candidates, including the incumbant, do not live in my ward so I voted for the one who did knowing it wasn't going to make a scrap of difference.

All Councillors bar two are Labour and it seems that the opposition don't want to waste their money and Labour know they are onto a sure thing and can't be arsed.

Yes, this sort of complacency seems to be quite prevalent .

One of the safest labour seats in the country. Only 3 candidates to choose from. They don't even canvass during the general election, so we get nothing for council. I can't see turnout figures this time around but last time it was 18%. I suppose people it doesn't matter.

We didn't get polling cards either, so I didn't know about it till earlier this week.

Well, at 47 I have finally experienced voting for the candidate who won. Huge majority overturned. Every election, I have trotted out the mantra that thstvthere is always a point in voting, because each individual voter has the same say. Turns out it was true!

I didn’t even know there was an election ...

not eveeywhere had an election.

and thank you fallenmadonna - hopefully more will get this obvious fact now!

*No wonder people can't be bothered to vote when the candidates don't bother."

To be fair to them, as these are local elections, a lot of those standing are doing so on a "voluntary" basis alongside their full-time jobs or other activities. We had a number of independent candidates standing in our area; any leaflets would have to be paid for out of their own pocket. I also personally know someone who stood for a major party but received no funding (as the party has virtually no chance in our area) so again, he had to pay for leaflets himself and any campaigning was what he was able to fit in himself around his job.

It costs money to print leaflets and canvass. If you are wasting your time because a council is always Labour or Conservative, why would the party least likely to win, or never wins, waste all their money?.Also, they don’t have a lot of money for local elections. They don’t have a lot of money full stop.

Local elections are supposed to be about who runs local services. However they are frequently seen as a test of the party in power at Westminster. The fact that voting, or not, in local elections makes no difference to Westminster politics seems to pass people by.

Local councils tend to be boring until something goes wrong. A lot of what they do is heavily controlled. They cannot close schools easily, put up the council tax to fund what they really would like to do and they tend to limp along trying their best whilst continually having to save money. No-one ever reviews if what they do is worthwhile or not.

Too many local councillors are not very proactive about meeting the public and holding meetings about important issues. People won’t engage if they don’t know what is going on locally. However their role in what actually happens is limited because of central government. It’s not big business that pulls the strings, it’s the Govt.

Very good points, Yarg and Bubbles. It's easy to forget that candidates have a day job to fit in.

However their role in what actually happens is limited because of central government. It’s not big business that pulls the strings, it’s the Govt.

You only have to spend a couple of quid every month and buy the private eye to see that local councils actually are a shambles and are neck deep in corruption, nepotism and waste a lot of money.

If people started holding their local councils to account we may start getting better representation, unfortunately even at local level the "could never vote tory/labour" mindset sets in

Because nothing changes. Theyre all pretty much of a muchness, aren't they.

Op,it’s because councils have no power and local politicians are idiots

@Justanotherlurker Ah, yes - Rotten Boroughs!

Similar to others, I tried to find out about the people standing for election and struggled to even find their names, let alone any info about what they had planned if the won.
I understand that leaflets cost money but most areas now have local Facebook pages ( the one for our area is very active) not one candidate thought to boost their profile using Facebook or any other online resources. How can we make an informed choice if we don’t know what we are voting for?

We didn’t have one in our constituency, but tbh I wouldn’t bother anyway. It’s so safe (for the party I don’t support) that it’s literally a waste of time.

I do vote in generals, even though it’s the same situation but I feel like it matters more and that I get to have a say in actual decisions.

Local ones just seem pointless all round tbh.

People who are saying that local elections are pointless - what other method of selecting local government would you advocate? Do you think it should be treated more like a job, with an application/interview type process (and possibly more clear objectives and accountability)? Who would select, if so?

Safe seat, Labour. The Conservatives didn't field even a paper candiate this time. So Labour, Green, Lib Dem.

They all had the same approach to voters:

0 leaflets
0 canvassing
0 posters
0 engagement with print media
0 engagement with social media
0 engagement with broadcast media

Ah, yes - Rotten Boroughs!

Yup, and every council has blamed central government ad infinitum regardless of who is in power

People who are saying that local elections are pointless

They are generally people who can be ignored, if the results had gone on historical standards then the fact we have the shit show of an incompetent conservative government knee deep in typical tory shite they should have had a serious kicking after 8 years in power, the fact that people are still not flocking to labour shows we may have hit peak corbyn.

If it had played out as expected even by the most die hard tories, then MN would be full of threads about how the UK was suddenly "woke" and you could bet your house on Labour winning the next GE

For me there was a lack of parties to choose between. I'm in a very safe seat and only had the choice of between the main 3 parties. There weren't even any independents to choose from.

Stacks of leaflets here, but then it's usually very close between Cons and LDs, Labour nowhere. LDs won this time.
Dh and I always vote, however fed up we are with the lot of them.
Glad to see that Labour got a wake-up call over anti-Semitism. Corbyn has been so complacent about it. I have seen mentions of 'training'. FGS, you can't 'train' people out of anti-semitism. They need to be kicked out of the party.

I would have voted if I had known about it. No leaflets, no canvassers no polling cards and no advertising.

Here I got stacks of Tory and Lib Dems leaflets. I got one Labour leaflet on Monday after I posted my ballot paper on Saturday. Also had Tories and Lib Dems canvassing on the doorstep. Well it worked for the Lib Dems as they won the council back even though I voted for the only 3 individuals who were from 3 different parties who actually lived in the ward.

I just hope the Lib Dem councillors are helpful unlike the ones elected before 2014 who also didn't live in the ward, as if you emailed them about a problem that the council dealt with they would make up any excuse of why they couldn't help. You then would have to contact the one Tory councillor who would always sort it out.

I normally vote but this time I couldn't. I couldn't with any conscience vote for any of the candidates. No matter how important I feel democracy is I had to go with my right not to vote.

I would normally vote but didn't this time. Essentially the Conservative candidate polls 80% of the vote. I knew my vote wouldn't make any difference. Until we have a form of proportional representation those living in overwhelmingly Conservative or Labour constituencies or wards have little influence if their view differs from the majority.

It’s possible some people weren’t even aware it was happening. If you work FT, colleagues haven’t been discussing it and you’re not an avid follower of the news, it was easily missed tbh. I forgot about it until a colleague (who only mentioned it because her DF counts ballot papers) mentioned it in passing. Nobody canvassed in my area and I received zero leaflets through the door, I didn’t even know my local labour candidate had changed.