Do you vote? Does it matter?

Yes it does very much to me but not my DH. I am afraid. I boringly consider it a hard fought for privilege and I think we have become either too complacent or disaffected by politics and sadly society to care about it.

I remember looking at the queues of people in Libya and Egypt at the time of their ballots and thinking if only we were the same.

Gosh, yes, I care. Passionately. Even though I go with Ken 'If voting changed anything, they would have abolished it'. However, I think that extending the franchise to such young people is a nonsense. With rights come responsibilities and in law they are still juveniles.

I've always felt voting should be compulsary - after all, you can always spoil your voting paper - but it would flag up the importance Of it, and as a citizen I think everyone has a duty to participate even if their individual influence is vanishingly small.

My grandmother was a suffragette and I think it is tragic that what they fought for has so quickly faded from the general consciousness.

I agree - voting is very important. However, I always remember my grandfather telling me that politicians only lie when they speak so bear that in mind whenever I read the election literature that comes through my door, if you don't vote you can't complain about whoever gets in.

My brother is totally the opposite he always says he doesn't vote because it only encourages them!

I never miss placing my vote, it was hard fought for by strong women and we would be dismissing them not to use our Vote.

I would make voting compulsory. People in this country don't realise how privileged they are to have universal suffrage. Not sure about lowering the age for voting, though if we can catch them young, before they get completely cynical, political parties might have a new lease of life.

Next month we are to have the election hardly anyone has heard of: for locally elected police commissioners which, personally, I think is a foolish politicisation of the police service, though I shall vote.

I believe it is a civic duty to vote and, as a woman, I feel a special responsibility because it was such a prolonged struggle for women to get the vote in the UK. However, as far as electing MPs is concerned, the system is so flawed that I might as well not bother because I live – and have always lived – in a "safe seat". It's only the floating voters in the marginals who have a real effect with their votes.

anno I think the politicisation of the police is all wrong too. I have no idea who is standing and what they are standing for locally. I shall probably find out via the web and, in the end, go and vote but I strongly suspect that the turnout will be very low.

The problem is that if you have the right to vote you also have the right not to vote. However this should be a considered choice not bone bloody idleness or apathy. Everyone should be obliged to attend the polling station or take part in a postal ballot but there should be a box at the bottom of the ballot paper that says 'I choose not to vote for any of the candidates'.

I was very shocked talking to some people at the time of the last general election. All women, they ranged from twenty something to forty or fifty something. None of them voted as they reckoned elections were just for rich people. I still don't understand why they thought this, but nothing I said – and I can be quite persuasive – convinced them to go to the polling station.

It's laziness and apathy.

No it wasn't laziness or apathy. It wasn't that they couldn't be bothered. They genuinely felt that they had no role to play and that none of it had anything to do with them. The all felt that elections were only relevant to rich people – by rich I think they meant middle class i.e. people who owned their own homes, for example.

absent that runs through a lot of area's in the North East... Women more so than Men, they feel its down to others to make those decisions and that their opinions are thought to be worthless.

Maybe because they can't see anything happening locally?

Possibly lily but I think it goes deeper than that, its something that has come through the generations, in mining villages its was always the Men in the family who seemed to take the lead, and its as though some of the Woman in North East need to realise that they can make a difference.

In Australia it is compulsory to vote and I think it should be here too. However I agree there should be a box for "none of the above".

So far I haven't received anything about the Police Commissioner election, I don't even know who is standing! Looks like I will have to look it up on the internet, but there are many people who don't use the internet, so may not vote because they will not know what the various candidates stand for.

I always vote and encourage other to do so, I did persuade OH that he should take part but he too is now full of apathy and of the 'nothing changes whats the point?' brigade. I remember my grandparents getting dressed up to go the polling station when I was small, and I rather feel its carrying on their example to do so even I sometimes would like to tick the 'none of the above' box.

I used to canvas around some of the least affluent areas of the ward I represented and I never once heard the excuse that elections were only for the rich. A lot of my supporters were women from the big council estate.

I think it should be compulsory ,with a 'none of the above ' box. I have always voted but there is no one now to vote for.
The Tory party have delivered their local newspaper in which George O has endorsed the Police Comm. he wants, which is enough to put me off!!

As soon as voting was made compulsory I would stop voting. Voting is a right that should be exercised voluntarily by voters - and the voluntary decision starts with the decision to decide whether or not to visit the polling station. In nearly 50 years of voting as far as I can rememeber I have voted in every general election and all but two local elections when I was either ill or unable to get to the polling station.

I will not, however, be voting for the new police commissioners. The police should be apolitical and having an elected police commissioner by definition politicises the police.

I'm going to vote in the hope I can keep the class traitor and the failed lib dem councillor from getting the job. My other choice is an ex police officer who I hope at least will have some idea what it's like to police this area.

I always vote. People can't complain about who gets elected if they don't make the effort to vote.

Good luck with that, vampirequeen! (I mean it)

I always vote though it's not always an easy choice - bad, bad or bad!
It was hard won by women and I feel it's an opportunity to contribute. Also, as janthea said you shouldn't moan if you've not made the effort. I know my DD doesn't vote but I'm not sure about DS - I think he does now I come to think of it.

As for voting at 16/17. My first thought was no, they're too young. But then if they can get married at that age they should have a say. They may think it through more carefully than someone a lot older!

I always vote. If I didn't and the wrong guy got in by 1, I would have myself to blame. Choosing the right or wrong guy [or woman] is increasingly difficult for me in national elections. I have less and less respect for most candidates and I cannot identify closely with any party. Local elections are easier because my local councillor has always be helpful when I've needed him and the council works reasonably well.

My issue is that there are too many layers of government and we are paying for all of them. We have local, London Mayor, London Assembly, Westminster and EU - and UN on the top of them all. I would keep local and Westminster and chop the rest with an axe, ending them or cutting them down substantially. If government worked brilliantly, I might see the point of so many layers with all their hangers-on; but it doesn't.

My grandmother was a suffragist and I will always vote - even if I spoil the paper and scrawl 'none of these twits' across it. Or in the case of the chief constable post 'any of these, they all look the same'. Or maybe the other way around!