"I vote for who my husband tells me to"

[Applescruffel]

A few years ago, a family member shocked me by saying, yeah, I do vote but I don't know anything about it so I just vote for whoever DH says.

My jaw dropped. Honestly, WTAF?

I advised her to go on isidewith and answer the questions, see what it comes back with. I asked her a few days later if she had, and she said yes, it came back with X party. BUT THEN SHE SAID "but DH wants XX party so I'm going with them" Jaw hit the floor.

Anyway, I'm wondering how common it is. Have any of you ever voted for someone someone else told you to?

yabu - yes, I've voted as per someone else's instructions
yanbu - no, I've always voted according to what I want.

Yeah I know your husband and he lied I’m afraid, he voted Workers Unite Party, haha. Oh and he told me he hates your new hairstyle.

Absolutely shocking!

Wow I didn’t realise Swiss women only got the vote in 71, incredible it was such a short time ago.

... this won't go down well but each time a vote is due I discuss the candidates with my H and if we are in disagreement about who to vote for we each present an argument for/against and find common ground. Otherwise our votes cancel each other out so 💁‍♀️ I told him to choose this time because I'm bored to death with it all, I'm skint and disabled so whomever wins I'm screwed.

Hmm you're not a British citizen but you're happy with his vote for Reform ?

Why is it necessary to convince each other?

When I was younger I had no idea, so my first ever general election I voted the same as my parents.
in the referendum my husband and I cancelled each other out with one for leave and one for remain.
i don’t know if or who he’s voting for today.

My Mum.actually campaigned for my Dad to be a Conservative MP when I was a baby but never actually voted for him.herself, he never knew :-)

He left her when I was a toddler and is a total wrong un so it still gives her a small amount of pleasure!!

It’s your individual vote, the concept of cancelling each others out is irrelevant.

To be honest, my mum has probably voted for whoever my dad has told her to in the past. It wouldn’t surprise me at all - they are both 82. He goes on and on and on and calls people stupid if they don’t agree with him. I think if she didn’t actually vote for who he told her to once in the booth, she would just tell him she had “to keep the peace.” Really annoying, but this is how they are. My mum will never discuss politics on any level and it’s all very odd actually.

It isn't necessary, I don't think I said it's necessary? I actually find it helps to have someone to discuss the possibilities with.

Good point.

Really concerned about postal votes now!

Quite often on MN I read "I asked my DH about this and he says..."

Always amazes me.

My sister in law is like this, she isn’t stupid or subservient to her husband she just doesn’t have any interest in politics. She is an office manager for the NHS and she says her full mental capacity is fully taken up with her kids, her work, running the home and family as well as dealing with her parents and siblings who also had additional needs.

I find her honesty about this refreshing actually, her husband and her share similar values and he is more interesting in politics so he usually will tell her who he is voting for and why and if she agrees she will vote the same. Usually they both vote Labour except for one year when her husband votes SNP and she vote Labour.

Dh will vote for whoever I tell him too.
I send him all the links to vote for policies and who gets my vote etc, I include him in discussions and debates at the dinner table (dd took politics a level so is very engaged), I leave out all the campaign leaflets for him to look for.
But in the end, he'll just ask me who he should vote for and tick whatever I tell him.

I think that is partly regret from the one time he went different and voted leave whilst I voted remain. I don't think he trusts his own judgement when it comes to politics anymore

Not really true. (I've worked as a poll clerk for nearly 30 years).

Every polling station must have big print ballot papers and a magnifier. There are also forms to sign so the presiding officer can go to the booth with the blind person to either read out the names or to put the cross against the candidate the voter wants.

We would do anything asked to make it as easy as possible.

I thought you could over-ride the postal vote if you then voted in person on the day?

No

You can take your postal vote to your own polling station on the day (as it'll be too late to post it).

She clearly isn't influenced by the garbage the MSM put about them.

I don't vote for who my husband tells me too and he wouldn't dream of telling me who to vote for but he is massively more knowledgable than me about politics and our politic were similar right from when we first got together so I am heavily influenced by him.
On the flip side he listens to me with other things. I've bought houses for us that he has t even seen and I choose where we would live when we moved. He hadn't even visited the area before we moved in. So he clearly trusts my opinion for some things

She's is. She got her husband to vote Reform because of small boats. I saw her on another thread.

I really find it hard not to completely despise people who say they have "no interest in politics" as though "politics" is some sort of niche subject of interest that may or may not have much effect on your life depending on whether you have any interest in it, like hockey or dog training. I was shocked today to see the young female British tennis player at Wimbledon who didn't even know there was an election on. The wilful ignorance by a presumably educated person, plus the disrespect to our foremothers is staggering and saddening.

I also read a post on MN earlier where someone said that their 22 year old child was voting for the first time and didn't know who to vote for as they "didn't know anything about politics". That is a serious failure of parenting in my opinion.

Alternatively, you can just vote for the best looking candidate, which is what my grand-mil used to do!

I 'tell' younger DB who has autism and mental health issues who to vote for as he struggles to comprehend all the various policies etc. BUT I know him inside out and know his values and always explain why that is the best party for him to vote for. Ultimately he has the freedom to change his mind in the booth but I doubt he does.

DH and I don't care who each other vote for as long as they're left leaning as if either of us had any right leaning values we'd be completely incompatible and getting divorced. We're 18 years in so seems to work for us.

She might of course be a loyal Russian supporter of Putin.