Why should you vote?

To get these out of the way early on, the usual reasons people say you should vote:

Why Vote?
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1. Because people have fought and died for your ability to vote.
2. Because it gives you a say on issues.
3. If you don't vote, the government is not held accountable for its actions.
4. It is your only chance to have a direct say on tax, environment, europe and many other political issues that affect you or that you care about.

These reasons apparently are not enough to persuade people to vote, so below are some of the other reasons people give for not voting - and their flaws.

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In Britain we have a first past the post system. This means that the number of people who vote in an election are irrelevant. Winners are determined purely on a majority of those who do.

It does not matter how many votes are cast. If one vote is cast in the entire election, the result is as valid as if all the eligible population voted.

And candidates can vote for themselves.

A suspicious mind may say this is why certain parties say that if you can't find anyone to vote for, stay home. There are over a hundred political parties in the UK, and usually ten or fifteen candidates in a constituency. The chances are that if you are a floating voter, or "sick of the lot of 'em" you won't vote for their party.

If you don't vote at all, that's one fewer vote they need to rally their supporters against to give them a majority.

Coin Toss by bummom03
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When someone fails to vote, or spoils their ballot paper, this is not taken to mean they object to the candidates. It is simply taken that they have surrendered their right to vote to the electing authority.

Basically if there is a tie, or no one votes at all, the results of the election are decided by tossing a coin. This is, once again, as valid as if everyone voted. The election winner does have a valid mandate as no one voted against them.

This is why even if you can't find a party to vote for, if there is one you really don't want in power on your ballot, consider voting for another party simply as a vote against them. If the vote prevents them taking part in the coin toss, they cannot be elected by default.

If all governments were the same, this would never have been written:

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Evil Smile, The people who cast the votes decid...
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Some people deliberately spoil their ballot papers by marking them e.g. writing "None of the above" on the paper.

This is handled in an election simply by putting the ballot paper aside and not counting it. No records are kept to differentiate these papers from those accidentally mismarked or spoiled. In electoral procedure it is the same as it you did not vote.

Once again, Silence Gives Consent. Spoil your ballot paper, and you voted for the winner.

Write-in votes (where you write the name of a preferred candidate on the ballot slip) are NOT legal in the UK and count as a spoiled ballot.

There is also a view that if enough ballot papers are spoiled the electoral system must be reformed. Unfortunately this is false. The people who would need to change the system are the ones who are elected by it. From a very cynical point of view, since it has worked for them, why change it?

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Not true. First, it's only a safe seat because people go out and vote. However it is worth voting regardless of the size of party you support.

All candidates put up a deposit of £500 to stand in the election. If they poll less than 5% of the vote they lose the deposit. Every vote they get makes it more likely they will regain the deposit (and particularly in the case of independants, this is not a small sum to lose).

Even if they don't win this time, receiving your vote makes it more likely they will stand again. It lets them gauge how much support they actually have.

With falling vote turnout, your vote counts for a lot more than it did - note the European elections where in some regions less than a third of the voters turned out. Out of the remaining millions who did not vote in each region, if only one thousand extra had, their votes would have sent different parties to the European parliament.

Eugene Debs quote by bethechange
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Voting is a matter of principle as well as tactics. If you really believe in a cause, vote for the candidate or party that supports it, whether or not you think they are likely to get in. After all they will never be elected if no one bothers to vote for them.

If you don't vote nothing will change. If you do then there's a chance that it might.

An effective protest vote? Ignore the rhetoric, read the manifestos, inspect the parties' past records, and then vote with your beliefs no matter how large or small the party or individual you support. With falling voter turnout each vote counts.