h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Reading about the enormous sacrifices people made in the past to win the right to vote, it seems particularly sad that so many people in Britain can't be bothered to exercise that right. The Suffragettes heroically won the vote for British women. Others before them had to fight to get votes for men who weren't rich. All we have to do to honour their memory is to go to somewhere fairly close to our homes and put an X on a piece of paper.
Is that too much to ask?

It isn't too much to ask, which is why everyone must encourage (young people especially) everyone to vote. Even if the only reason they use their vote is so that they can complain that they didn't vote for the current government......
But how can we make voting sexy enough? And isn't it time the UK had polling days on Sundays when most working people really can't say they didn't have time?
I have to say that I've always used my vote, and now I live abroad I really feel the lack of it.

Can say, that voter turnout depends on the weather (sic!).. if it rains on an election sunday, the turnout raises about 15% (in Austria)...
We had last Sunday, communal elections...48% voter turnout (causes a Viennese socialist majority)

Presidential elections in 1998 -- voter turnaout 54%, and this was a obligate election!!

Let´s vote...thousends of peoples struggle worldwide to achieve the right to vote, and we don´t take it as serious as it is...
littelNero, master of useless information

It should be compulsory, like it is in Australia.
If you don't vote, you get fined.
Sexy enough?


Thank you for your comments.

I apologize for not replying sooner, I was not subscribed to this new page.

~Seven~

Hmm... I'm not convinced by that. Surely with compulsory voting, you just get a lot of people who don't think or know about politics turning up and voting for just anyone merely to avoid the fine? The problem is that people (here in the UK, anyway) don't feel inspired enough by the political parties to want to vote of their own free will. Compulsory voting would merely disguise that problem, not solve it.
Personally, I'd favour a different voting system such as Single Transferable Vote, so that people might be more likely to feel that their vote was worth something. Trouble is, I can't see it happening in Britain while the present government is doing so well out of the current system.

If mandatory voting is ever introduced in the UK, there is bound to be a small but committed group of insurrectionistas who indulge in all the tactics of the women's suffrage movement in order to acquire the right NOT to vote!

You realize, that although you have a point, it would be easier if we all just set fire to our legs!

You don't even have to vote... Make a protest like the women before and spoil you ballot paper

I got my sample ballots in the mail today, somewhat delayed. Someone had driven a vehicle through the steel reinforced cinder block wall of the local post office, forcing a temporary closure.

Definitely will be at the polls for the biennial by-elections.

(Elections for the the US House of Representatives take place every two years and the six year terms of the Senators are staggered so that some will be up for reelection, nationwide, in every by-election.)

(CA, USA)