Turnout only around 52%

[Houseplanter]

As far as I can tell? Goodness that's low. Almost half the population who is eligible haven't made their choice.

I agree with @SD1978 by not voting you give your choice away.
Also I feel that often people don’t vote as they don’t want to find a compromise. They expect to benefit from ALL policies but it’s not possible. So not voting is selfish.

@garlictwist how could you forget? I’m genuinely surprised how it’s possible.

Of course it's fine not to vote, a bit pathetic though. They don't care about 'the message' that people are disolusioned so dont vote, they just care about securing seats and not what % bothers to turn out. I have a friend who never votes, she harps on about it so we all know she doesn't but then incessantly moans about the government- weird.

You could've applied for free voter ID

I always vote, l think if you don't vote you defiantly can't moan about the government in power, I'm not overly fond of any of the parties, but l vote for the person that l want to be my MP not the party in general if that makes sense?. I have never voted lib dem but candiate here was the only one knocking on doors and seemed to understand local issues. Hopefully she will beat the long standing tory MP who we never see or hear from here.

Agreed so weird!
Especially this one where there's no judgement how you vote. No one wants another 5 years of Tory bless, but equally Labour are shit/ Lib Dems are odd/Reform are controversial. Vote for who you want ?

There is zero point in a spoiled ballot. Nobody cares.

Based on my admittedly small sample, people were attending with photo id as publicised but hadn’t realised it has to be specific. 2 people turned away in front of me and at least one of those had none of the acceptable forms

All sorts of things are legal. That doesn't mean they should be respected.

Maybe what we all need now is more respect for each other.

There are still huge cracks in our society and they're showing again as these results come in.

We have to be able to do better than this.

BBC are saying 14000 turned away due to unsatisfactory ID.

And who are you to decide what should be respected? This sneering and judgement from those who decide they are better than others is part of the problem.

It is time for some basic respect.

Our system allows for a person to choose not to vote. I respect an individual's right to choose whether to vote or not.

You can make voting compulsory but it will not increase engagement.

That's a lot. How does it work for postal votes and voting by proxy?

If you spoil your ballot paper, you end up as part of the turnout - e.g. 'Labour won the election with an 80% turnout'.

Politicians use turnout as endorsement.

Not voting is a more powerful way to withdraw your support because, for example, winning an election with only a 20% turnout is meaningless in terms of public support.

(I voted)

That's just who got turned away though. I'd be interested to know how many didn't bother turning up because they had no ID. Although how would you ever find out?!

Oh, no ID needed for a postal vote!

Especially as the election was held on an unexpected date giving little time to sort out ID if you have recently moved or whatever.

No. The best option there is to spoil your ballot.

If you just don’t bother, it looks like you don’t care.

@counterpane. But why not vote? Even if you know it won't count it doesn't matter.You will still have made your voice heard. It's a right only the free world have.
It's only every 5 years.

I think it only looks like you don't care to those who don't understand the electorate.

Politicians understand low turnout and what it means - they understand the message being sent and the risk that those people may turnout if motivated to do so.

I had to persuade several colleagues that their NHS work ID card wasn't acceptable.

I almost didn’t vote.i stayed late at work to finish off something my 17 year old student did incorrectly today so that tomorrow she can present something to her peers (I will never tell her she did it wrong). I got to the polling station at 9:45 and almost didn’t go in. I am so disillusioned. I voted in the end because I had to. My student couldn’t vote today but she was so engaged with the discussions on voting, she was so interested in our stories of our first vote, in the history of uk democracy and why we should vote as women. I had to vote for her. I’m sure she wouldn’t have agreed with my vote, and neither would my 17 year old self (well not publicly anyway!). But I voted for what I thought was best for my 37 year old self today in my constituency.

It's the school dinner holidays in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Lots of people are away on holiday. It's bound to have had an effect.

I was one of my sons’ proxy. He applied, and nominated me a few weeks ago.

The other son was turned away because he had forgotten his ID 🙄.

How is it meaningless though? Even with whatever pathetic turn out there is, a majority to govern is still a majority to govern. It's not a popularity contest for whoever gets the Kudos.

I'm not shocked. I've never known there to be so little to choose from. Starmer will likely get a smaller share of the vote than Corbyn had, but a healthy majority. The least representative government in modern history?

I’m not surprised, the UK doesn’t have a proportional voting system - why would you bother to vote if you live in a safe seat and don’t want to vote for the party holding it? Voter turnout in countries with proportional voting systems is consistently higher than non proportional voting systems because every vote actually counts.