Is it odd to not vote the same party as your DP/DH/DWat the elections?

[firsttimemama]

My Dh and I will be voting differently. Is this odd?

I think DH and I will be as well. We have the same ideals and values but differing views about which party is most likely to achieve them. If it isn't a fundamental difference (i.e. one communist one bnp for e.g.) I don't think its odd or particularly unusual.

Lucy Mangan (Guardian journalist) has made a career out of it!

Another thing - Do you keep your voting preferences secret from your partner? (Just being nosy)

no, it's totally normal. DH will probs vote LD..I probably won't. essentially sauce for the goose is still sauc for he ganer, but the sauces on offer are not really all that different.

We'll be voting differently and we do of course tell each other. We argue debate about political issues an awful lot so it'd be impossible to keep it a secret!

We are ideologically quite different and both quite involved in differing capacities... it makes life interesting!

I'm probably voting LD and DH conservative. As someone said further up the thread we share the same values and ideals but disagree on who to trust. Also come from very different backgrounds (his is rather posh and mine very working class). And yes we discuss politics (sometimes heatedly). TBH my vote matters little as the Tory MP will be relected here. I'm OK with this as he is actually a good local MP successful in campaigning on local issues and I also agree with his line on some of the big ones (doesn't necessarily toe the party line).

We'll be voting differently as DH is a poor deluded idiot. The battle in our house is for the vote of DS1 who has just turned 18, has learning difficulties, wants to vote but hasn't the first idea who to vote for..... Just do what Mum says darling.....

Not odd in the slightest. My dh and I always vote differently. My parents always voted differently. And no, we don't keep it a secret either.

Actually, why would you think it's odd? Didn't women win the right to vote .. oooh .. nearly a century ago? And what was the reason we weren't allowed to vote before? Oh yes, because it was assumed we would vote the same as our husbands! Victorian patriarchy, anyone?

Our friends were DH SNP & DW Labour, so always had one poster for each in 2 front windows. One evening they both had a huge pile of leaflets to deliver for their respective parties and secretly agreed to save time by doing half the area each putting one of each leaflet in each door. DW crept round in the dark desperately hoping that no one saw her. She arrived home, tired, cold and exhausted to find DH already home, with his feet up. His leaflets were done, his share of hers still lying in a pile. He said he could not bring himself to do it.

Not odd at all. I don't know who I am voting for yet so I can't say if it will be the same.

Good grief...

Not odd in the slightest - DH and I generally vote differently, as we put slightly different weight on different issues. That's the point of one person one vote, isn't it?

I never thought for a moment that a woman ought to vote the same as her DP/DH (in fact that different even cross my mind). My question was really about a couple who are compatable, (or presumeably they wouldn't be together) and part of a family unit voting for different things that would effect that family unit in different ways ie income levels or public services.

neither of us have made our minds up yet. in the past we were in a lib-dem / tory marginal. I voted lib-dem and dh labour. this year we are both wavering between lib-dem and green.

DH and I are voting for the same party - labour in case anyone is interested :D

No point voting for anyone else for starters, its a very safe seat. We went to school with the tory candidate and no one could stand him. the lib dem candidate doesn't live in this area, the SNP have done SFA for scotland imo so yeah - labour!!

oops, meant to add, DH is a wee bit scared of me :D but I think he does genuinely think labour are the best option :D

Dh and I grew up in families with very different attitudes to politics. Mine were active, his not, and our parents voted for completely different parties. We met when we had just left university so political discussion was part of our lives ? got quite heated at times. Think we are concerned about the same issues but sometimes end up voting for different parties, especially in local elections - not opposite ends of the spectrum, though.

firsttimemama I think in the centre there is room to support different parties...with the mess we're in every party will HAVE to raise taxes and cut services. I think in the end they will pretty much do similar things with differences in the detail not the substance IYKWIM.

Far harder if partners are on the lunatic extreme fringe. If DH decided he was a BNP supporter for example then I don't think we would be able to stay together. But he won't as he is a decent human being.

DP and I usually vote for different parties

We vote the same, too. Although in case of proportionate representation I could vote Liberal. If I wanted to of course.

I will vote LD, DH would probably vote Tory...but he is out of the country and his postal vote arrived today - probably not enough time for it to be sent out to him, signed and sent back.

I could (illegally) sign it for him...but I think that would be wrong. Unless he wanted to vote LD!!!

Thanks for your responses - they're. Of the posters who have replied mostly you will be voting differently to your partner I do find that really interesting - and surprising.

We used to have differing views, DH voted SNP, me labour, but we both now will vote labour