(no subject)

[robinbloke]

[Poll #304442]

Comments

[the-lady-lily.livejournal.com]

To further my answer -

a) I shall in fact have voted twice, if the postal vote I cast at the weekend gets back to London in time to attempt to have some influence over who the Mayor will be.

b) Anyone who is entitled to vote and neglects to is a complete and utter toerag. Even those individuals who say they're not voting because they don't support any of the parties should at least make the effort to go in and spoil the ballot paper to make their feelings clear. Spoiled ballot papers show up in statistics, deliberately uncast votes don't.

[crocodilewings.livejournal.com]

Actually, deliberately uncast votes do show up on statistics, like the 31% of the adult population who didn't vote at the last general election. True, it doesn't make a distinct political statement, but neither does spoiling a ballot; they both just say "this potential voter got buggered up somewhere along the line". There should be a distinct "none of the above" option available.

Just out of interest, do you believe that voting should be mandatory by law?

[the-lady-lily.livejournal.com]

Deliberately uncast votes show up in statistics, but not by saying 'here, I'm a deliberately uncast vote!' as opposed to 'there was something good on telly and I couldn't be bothered to walk'. A spoilt vote may imply the buggering up, but if all the deliberate non-voters spoiled their votes instead that would be a big statistical change, and would actually make a statement. It would be political action instead of indistinguishable from political apathy, if you see what I mean.

Voting mandatory... tricky one. The countries that do either have lots of people paying them money for not voting anyway, or have a far higher social expectation of their citizens in the first place (i.e. voting gooooooood from birth, not just because it costs you if you don't). I think keeping it voluntary does at the moment risk the problem of juvenile political disassociation carrying over into the next two decades or so, which is a risk that no one can really accurately gauge; but if it was compulsory, we'd have to put a lot more effort into politically educating the public so they could make an informed decision (we could do with that anyway, might encourage more people to vote on its very own).

In answer to the question, I see the good sides and the bad sides. Not quite sure which one I come down on at the moment, but something needs to be done to overcome the current growth of political apathy. Whether that's making voting compulsory or not is another matter.

[adove.livejournal.com]

the spleen was for chris who is not feeling too good
everyone say ahh!

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Awwww :(

Tell him it's probably time for him to get another sniff of H₂S to top up his immunities.

[wolf-shadow.livejournal.com]

I can't vote! Not registered here yet, and they won't have it done in time, but I'm not on anywhere else still... *mutter*

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Not registered? Tut tut... no biscuit.

Still motivation to sort it out sharpish ready for the next one.

[jasonooc.livejournal.com]

me being me didnt even realise there was an election on, so that means there no free beer or chocolate, so i cant be bothered to vote. ok i didnt realise i was ment to...

[silja.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, no. I really want to, but I shall be at NEGLECT in the USA, and we don't have postal voting here in Ireland.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Although I'm registered and entitled to vote in the EU elections here, I only voted by post in Germany.

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

I vote, therefore I am

We posted our ballot thingies on our way to work this morning.

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Mine is luckily in the village; I'll vote at lunch.

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

How civilised - We had to cope with the East Midland's postal ballot forms. Totally bloody confusing. I'm amazed that its possible to make a postal ballot form as complex as they have done - a triumph for the Ministry of Adminstrative Affairs

[crocodilewings.livejournal.com]

Ous was really simple. "Tick three boxes in this one. Tick one box in this one. Get someone to sign this, and tick a box saying that you're actually you. Put those in this envelope, put that envelope and this in the other envelope, and post it".

Or something like that.

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

That was ours, but the witness thing is going to throw a lot of people - I'll be extremely interested to see what the spoiled ballot rate is for these postal forms is compared with the rate for traditional voting.

I also suspect that the actual turn out will not be much higher as a LOT of people will treat their voting form as junk mail.

[crocodilewings.livejournal.com]

I don't think it'll throw that many people. Anyone with a passport or drivers license issued in the past ten or fifteen years will be familiar with the concept of getting someone to prove they are who they say they are on an official document, only this time it doesn't have to be a doctor/teacher/political figure who's known them for more than two years. Just "someone who isn't you".

[crocodilewings.livejournal.com]

Posted it last week. Probably already been counted.