To think that voting should be compulsory, with a £1000 fine for failing to cast your vote.

[HecatesTwopenceworth]

Bloody voter apathy drives me crazy! If you don't vote you have no right to moan about the state of things. 17.5% turnout in Salford.

17.5%

Outrageous.

I think that voting should be compulsory, but there should be an additional box on the form to allow you to abstain, if you do not wish to give any of the candidates your vote, and that you have longer to vote - so there are sessions over several days, to allow people time to vote around their commitments.

But not voting should not be an option imo, even if your vote is I Wish To Not Vote (cos you're all bastards)

Go on. Hit me...

I have always voted - and my entire adult life I have lived in areas which were safe seats for parties I did not support.I will keep on voting,partly to keep the right to complain about the way the country is governed ,but I do feel a bit jaded about the whole process.Proportional representation,anyone?

It does bother me that people don't vote - it doesn't take much, does it? And in my experience, it is those who don't vote that moan the most about how things are done.

Voting is compulsory in Singapore. If you don't vote, you lose the right to vote at the next election - in practice, it is quite easy to get reinstated on the electoral role if you have a half-plausible reason for failing to vote. Surprisingly for Singapore, there is no fine.

It is pretty much a given that everyone will vote. It is quite common for people to spoil their vote.

Voltaire - hmm - he was the one who was continually writing about someone without a buttock, wasn't he? So relevant to our undemocratic carryings-on in the 21st century in the UK ...

17.5% was the turnout for a local by-election though, people aren't generally that interested in local politics as borough/county councillors don't have a huge amount of weight.

The general election turnout is considerably higher at around 60%. Surely this is people coming out where it matters?

I don't agree it should be compulsory but I do think people should be a bit more interested in the European Elections but for that to happen we would ultimately need the media to be more interested in MEPs and European Parliament. I have heard NOTHING from any of my local candidates for Europe apart from seeing a billboard from UKIP. It needs a good PR job, like they did in America with the last election.

Voting is compulsory in some countries, including the one I am a dual national in.

Democracy there is a shambles, corruption is rife and most people either sell their vote or vote for whomever their local leader/boss/whatever is getting bribed by.

Queues are horrendous and the whole process is a PITA. And then the counting is probably rigged.

I don't recommend it.

I don't agree with making voting compulsory. My dad fought in WW2, he never voted. As an idealistic teenager I remember asking him why he didnt vote, hadn't he fought for that right etc?

His response was that the war was about democracy, and having a right to choose who to vote for also meant choosing not to vote if you so pleased. He also said that utimately all parties were the same, election promises never materialised, and that the mian motivator of all politicians was greed and self-advancement.

I haven't voted for over 10 years because my 'old Labour' views are not represented. I doubt I will ever vote again, unless the politica landscape changes significantly.

Hear, Hear! I think voting is incredibly important. People DIE around the world just wanting the right to vote and we're all so bloody apathetic about it.

Let's not forget; HITLER was voted in. That could have been stopped. There was no coup.

Votes count. Whether we agree with the politicians or not. If you don't agree with the manifesto's of the main parties, you can always vote GREEN and God knows, it's more important now than ever.....

Grrr x 2 !!

That was in support of simpson on pg 1 ( didn't realise there were more pages when reading)

lol!

I am in two minds about this one.

On the one hand if a person has no interest al all in politics and has never followed what is happening at all then maybe it is for the best they don't, as who would they vote for?

However, I personally feel it is important to be interested in politics (at least enough to be able to make a decision about who to vote for), as there is no point in having a democracy if you don't exercise your right to vote.

Ali I'd still say the Green party because even if they don't follow politics (despite it the fact it affects almost everything they do) at the very least, we need to sustain the environment we all live in. (NB, I am not a Green MP btw!)

My friend's so fed up with the state of things, she's joined the Jury Team as an independent for the EU elections. Perhaps more would vote if they felt the voice of 'the people' was being listened to. Let's see more independents.

"I see your point fizz, but tbh I see it as a duty. A responsibility we have, rather than a right we can choose to reject. And I totally agree about educating people."

I agree Hecate, because we live in a democracy (so called) we do have certian rights. HOWEVER we also have certain duties, our duty to the system of democracy is to vote - if we don't vote we are in effect saying that we don't care about whether we have any democratic process of election.

There should most definitly be an 'abstain' option which is different IMO to spoiling your ballot paper. Spoiling your paper indicates disgust with the whole system. Abstain could simply mean that you prefer to Vote green but there isn't a candidate standing for that party in this election.

An abstain option plus mandatory voting gives evidence to support or disprove candidate and party's claims of legitimacy. If EVERYONE has to vote and only 36% vote for you with another 40% activly marking "none of the above" that says something very very important about how your parties policies are viewed.

In each election how many people
a) dont' vote at all through deliberate choice (rather than circumstances/forgetfullness etc)
b) spoil papers (which aren't counted)
c) vote for the 'lesser of 2 (3, 4 or 5) evils'

because there is no abstain option and no mandatory voting we dont' know the answer to any of these questions.

We actually have very little idea who in the country really wanted the government of the day to be in power.

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bump09 - why don't you want to vote?
is it that you don't agree with any of the political candidates standing for election in your area?
is it that you think the entire system is corrupt/wrong/failing?
If it is either of these reasons then mandatory voting WITH an option to abstein on the ballot paper - a box marked "none of the above" would enable you to have your say without having to vote for someone you disagreed with.
If on the other hand you honestly don't give a toss about voting because you think the act of voting isn't important then you have no desire to live in a democracy.

A democracy doesn't just maintain itself, its defining characteristic is that it is the will of the people enacted by the people (or their chosen representatives). You DO have duties to help maintain the democratic system as well as the privilages and rights which you have as a citizen of a democracy.

btw I personally find the current (and past) UK political system to be a farcical pastiche of democracy, I also disagree with the system of voting and most of the current political parties. However I will ALWAYS vote, I may chose to spoil my ballot papper, I may chose to ignore national politics and vote for a MP who I believe will support current local issues, I may chose to vote tactically to prevent a party/candidate I disagree with the most gaining power.

Refusing to turn out to vote is IMO a childish reaction which acheives very little except to allow candidates to ignore vast sections of society because they did not exercise their rigth and duty to register their opinions.

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Ok I am really interested and not
Why don't you give a toss Bump? What exactly dn't you give a toss about? is it the process of politics? Do you honestly not care whether you live in a monarchy/ dictatorship or democracy?
How would you feel about someone saying "we have the power to rule you, we have the power to change the laws to suit us (inluding taking away maternity leave/insisting that 5 yr olds are put to work etc) and there is NOTHING you can do because we hae taken away your right to vote?"

(again I'll point out that I'm not suggesting the current UK system is perfect and I knwo they DO pass laws we disagree with etc - but at least its a step in the direction of democracy!)

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simpson

I agree with simpson it is a travesty that so few women and girls realise the struggles previous generations went through to get the vote and something approaching an equal status in society. Pankhurst, Wolstencroft et al should be a heroines to us all.

But then again, women's issues are rarely touched on in school, at the risk of appearing 'too feminist'!? So is it any wonder the younger generations are apathetic about the role they should play in our democracy.

So they just believe the tabloids that MPs are all corrupt, turn a blind eye to the soft porn adorning the tabloid pages and then just shrug their shoulders.

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Sorry if I'm repeating what has already been said but I'd like to see more in the way of encouragement to get people voting (and I agree absolutely that there should be a 'none of the above' box), and by this I mean a lot more education about places where people don't have the right to vote. Those who don't bother never think that it could happen here, but not voting to the extent mentioned in the OP allows all sorts of highly motivated and highly dodgy people to get in - I give you the BNP, for example. In many places it only takes enough people to stay away for them to get in, and then what had-wringing there will be.

sorry, hand-wringing.