Votingage

[enismirdal]

I voted.

Go me.

If you can vote, you should vote too. Or, if you don't vote, completely stop all moaning about how the country is run for the next 3 years, because you clearly don't care enough to try and do something about it.

Vote for who you like most. Or who you hate least. Or, alternatively, the one you think is least likely to d00m this country once they've finished lying to us.

I honestly think political parties would be able to win a HUGE student vote just by bribing them with chocolate and freebies. Really. Is this legal?

Comments

[edith-the-hutt.livejournal.com]

No. Bribing people to vote for you comes with a jail term attached. Sorry.

Of course I think you could get a better turnout if you paid people to vote. But that's another argument.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

But there might be loopholes. Since you certainly aren't allowed to *know* how they voted there'd be no way of enforcing your bribe anyway, so how about say, giving away donuts at the election hall? Or giving donuts to people who wear one of your stickers? Does that count?

[edith-the-hutt.livejournal.com]

Actually there are a few ways, most of which are banned. A good example is that a few years ago Italy banned people taking cameras and camera phones into the booths because people were using them to prove the way they had voted.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, interesting idea. Dammit, sometimes I'm not cynical enough :)

[illusive-shelle.livejournal.com]

I definitely like the idea. The little card they send for you to take in when you vote, you should be able to exchange that for a little prize/food/drink/something. That would encourage people to vote more.

I feel very smug now though. I feel entitled to whinge for the next few years.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Could you bribe people to *vote* though - give out things at the polling station to all voters?

Frex in America the parties give lifts to people who need them but are prohibited from electioneering whilst doing so.

[edith-the-hutt.livejournal.com]

Same goes for in Britain. Offering lifts is a staple of the British polling day.

The giving stuff to voters was basically what I was advocating. Carrot rather than stick. In Austrailia they hold fetes and barbeques and stuff to get people to show up. Sounds good to me. :)

[ilanin.livejournal.com]

In Australia it's also a legal requirement to vote.

[naath.livejournal.com]

They also fine you for not voting in Australia.

[emperor]

No, it's not legal. I might suggest that S. Cambs LDs gave them all lifts from Girton College to the polling station next time, though...

[misswilde.livejournal.com]

I'm going to vote later on! Never voted before so I'm quite excited about it :D

Votingage?

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, dear. He's got to you!

[sheffers.livejournal.com]

The polling station for residents of the Royal Holloway campus is actually in the Arts faculty building. The volunteers at the station reckoned maybe 200 people - that's just under 10% of the residents on campus - had turned up to vote by 6pm when I went in to cast mine for the Lib Dems.

This makes Cambridge look like a hotbed of furious political intrigue.

Honestly, I think bribery and coercion would be the only way to go with this particular set of students.

[garryk.livejournal.com]

Oh oh oh my first ever vote at a general election yay *does a merry dance*