April 6, 2015

The voting option you might not know about

We’re exactly 4 weeks away from the General Election and we wouldn’t be a great bunch of women unless we addressed the big question of politics. Because everything revolves around politics. Everything we do (shopping, eating, working) and everything we moan about (housing, petrol prices, jobs) is political and on the 7th of May we have the chance to make our voices heard and, hopefully, vote in the party and Prime Minister that will give us much less to moan about. 

But before we get to that point, it’s a matter of hearing from each party, seeing what they’ll offer and which party’s policies you agree with and would like to see implemented the most. But what if you don’t like or agree with any party’s policies enough to vote for them?

Well, you can go all Russell Brand and boycott the polls or you can spoil your ballot (no, we hadn’t heard of this until recently either), which basically means writing anything other than a cross in a box on your ballot paper. These votes still have to be counted and, as opposed to not voting, show that whilst you are interested in voting and engaged in politics, you don’t like any of your options. If enough spoiled ballots are cast, the press may jump on the story and politicians would have to take a long, hard look at themselves and assess their policies.

Still not sure? Rick Edwards’ has written a book explaining it all.

So really we just have two things to say about it:

1) Register to vote

If you don’t register to vote then you won’t be able to and you’ve got until the 20th of April to do so. Set five minutes aside, click here and register, then get don’t forget to vote on May 7th!

2) Protest the right way

Don’t like a certain party? Spoil your vote! Not voting says ‘I don’t care’; spoiling your vote says ‘I don’t agree’. (Whether you intend to spoil your ballot or not, you still need to register – see above!)

Let us know in the comments below on whether you have made a decision on who to vote for!

Written by Stephanie Bolton. Follow her on Twitter @StephanieBolton