Should we be made to vote?

That was when I spoilt mine, Flickety. There should have been a box stating 'I disagree with having Police Commisioners'

I spoilt my ballot in the police commissioner elections by writing on it that I did not want police commissioners. I am well aware, and was at the time, that this was a completely pointless gesture, but it was that or not vote.

Personally I am amazed by how are generation even learnt to stand, given we were not taught it at school. The purpose of school is not to teach you everything you may ever need to know in life. It is there to give you the basic background so that you can go out and find out things for yourself.

Good idea! Shall we form The Rose Party rosequartz ? What would we stand for though?Roses round the door for all in the land?

Point taken POGS.

If you think they are all useless I suppose you have to pick the least useless or stand yourself.

Rose

If I was a candidate I would not consider a spoilt ballot paper remotely worth noticing.

I would think, 'Well they weren't going to vote for me anyway but it could have been a vote against me, thank goodness it's been binned'

There was always plenty of political discussion in our house when I was growing up. However, I do not remember even a whisper of anything like that at school.

I suppose the one time I spoilt my ballot paper was in sheer frustration and I did not want to 'just not bother'. It is counted as a spoilt paper I believe and perhaps if there were a lot some notice may be taken by candidates. 'A rebel without a cause' - is that me?

I must say the Conservatives have been on the phone a few times in the past couple of days wondering if we had yet voted. Apart from that, no sign of any others.

I don't understand the reasoning behind compulsory voting to be frank.

If you don't have a clue about what you are voting for how on earth can it be sensible to give any credence to what that voter chose. It is a ridiculous action to take.

If you elect to spoil your ballot paper you have had no say as to the result. Why bother doing that, nobody will give a toss about your view, you will be deemed irrelevant to the whole process. It will only give you satisfaction of seeing yourself as a rebel but surely a rebel without a cause is as useless as a chocolate teapot.

It's very sad the population in the UK take so little interest in politics, given it has such a huge impact in our lives. It is so annoying to see countries where people risk their lives to vote and we are so apathetic.

Yes, it is. Jury service is essential for our legal system and the fair administration of justice. Democracy is about government by free choice. Free choice includes the freedom not to vote. I will man the barricades against compulsory voting.

Why should we not be fined for not voting if it becomes compulsory? Is it so different from jury duty?

Well, DD has voted, said the polling station was very busy when she went in around 7.00pm.

I was fascinated by current affairs and politics from a very young age. I think because my mother and grandmother (DF was at war in India) had a daily newspaper and read it avidly and discussed what was in it. I got the impression that current affairs and politics was of primary importance to adults so naturally I wanted to know about it too.

Australia is a democracy but they are fined if they don't vote as the OP said.

I really don't know the answer and am surprised at the number of younger people who don't vote, given that they should be so much more aware than we were at that age as their education is so much broader than ours was and covers Politics in General Studies doesn't it? The first time I learnt much about Local and Central Government was after school at college.

I can hear DD2 berating me about my bad grammar.

rosequartz, don't worry about it! I was just confused by the lack of a comma in the appropriate place, I think...

I'm not sure about this. I know it would probably infringe our Yuman Rights if voting was made compulsory, but apathy about voting is so rife in this country these days, I wonder whether a change in the law might concentrate people's minds a bit more.

ps opened a bottle of for DH and me, DH decided he would not have any as he is going out. I drank his share too (which altogether only amounted to a total of half the bottle - one quarter each normally, but more than my normal consumption)

Sorry. Too much for a weekday evening. Try again burble burble ...

Is it a true democracy if people are fined if they do not vote? Surely democracy is all about freedom? Freedom should include the right not to vote if you so wish.

Could you perhaps rephrase that, rosequartz? I'm confused...

Is being made to vote and being fined if you do not democratic?

www.safermedicines.org

For you, JessM.

I went this afternoon and took my grandson with me. Waited until it had stopped raining.
I explained all about it on the way there, and showed him the form.
When we got outside he wanted to know why I had voted for the Green Party. Was it because it was his favourite colour?
Both my sons and their partners, in their 30s and 40s, have voted, roses.

No I don't think we should be forced to vote, if people are not sufficiently interested to vote then they probably don't know enough about the parties to make an informed decision.

I think we should at least have the opportunity to abstain officially so that then we would know how many people cared enough to vote. At the moment we don't know whether it is because they can't be bothered or because they want to abstain. I always vote, never tell anyone which party and have, on two occasions, spoilt my ballot paper because I didn't like any of them.

Now there's a word to conjure with!

Perhaps it's just the nature of (extreme) right-wingery...?

Went to vote today and was presented with a ballot paper as long as a roll of loo paper. I didn't count but there were 10 - 12 parties to choose from and as far as I could see, apart from the current 3 main parties, all the rest were zenophobic little Englanders, that includes UKIP.

Why are rightwingers so fissiparous?

Mamie, the European election votes are counted in the UK on Sunday.

I have always voted both in the local and the general elections, ever since I was 18, but interestingly none of my very well educated DC seem to do the same, sometimes saying they forgot or were too busy. Not always, but sometimes. So I wonder if this present 30/40 age group of our DC feel differently to us when of the same age?

Do they announce the UK results straight away? We don't vote until Sunday.

Went to vote about 8am and I think they were very pleased to see me! I think the turnout for these Euro elections may be higher than normal because people are fed up of austerity and just want to make a point before the next general election.