Tag: ge2017

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iandsharman:

Please get out and vote on Thursday. Theresa May and the Tories are counting on you to just not be bothered and stay home instead. No vote is a vote for the Tories in this election. It’s a vote for cuts to schools and hospitals and a cut to the taxes of the wealthiest people in society while the poor, sick and disabled are left to freeze and starve. No vote is a vote to take food away from children to give tax breaks to the rich.

Prove them wrong on Thursday. Make them regret their arrogance. Do something radical and VOTE.

UK people, you’re all registered (if you’re eligible), right?

Okay, so the election is next Thursday, June 8th. 

Have you got a polling card? That will tell you where to go to vote. Look it up. Find out how to get there. If you’re able bodied, it’s probably within walking distance of your home. If you’re not, pre-arrange transport. If you’re struggling to sort transport, contact the candidate you want to vote for, because most candidate’s support campaigns are arranging transport. They want you to vote!

Plan exactly when you’re going to vote. Book out the time in your diary or your calendar or set up a Google alert, whatever works best for you. If you plan, you’re more likely to do it.

Your polling station will open at 7am. That means you can go on your way to work or college in the morning, if it’s convenient. 

Your polling station will stay open until 10pm. So if you forget until you’re home for the evening, you can still go and vote! As long as you’re in line by 10pm, you can still vote.

It’s really easy. You don’t have to take your polling card with you. You don’t have to give your voting number to the campaigners outside the polling station. You don’t need ID. You just need to go to the polling station listed on your polling card.

When you get to the desk inside, give your name and address to the person waiting. They’ll mark you off on their list – that stops anyone else being able to vote by claiming to be you. Then they’ll give you a voting paper that lists all the candidates standing for election in your constituency, next to the names of their parties. (Your voting paper won’t list Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn, unless you live in their constituency.)

Take your voting paper to one of the little booths – in our polling station, these are tables with sheltering hoods built over them so no one else can see what you’re writing. There are pencils in there. (You can take your own pen if you want to, but honestly, all the stuff about people erasing your vote and writing in a vote for another candidate is just scaremongering. People counting votes don’t have time to change votes.)

Mark a cross in the box next to the candidate you want to vote for.  Don’t write rude things or draw rude things next to candidates you don’t like – any mark other than the one next to your chosen candidate could mean that your vote is spoiled and won’t be counted. (If you want to spoil your vote, you are free to do so. I’d really rather you didn’t, but it’s your choice.)

When you’ve made your mark, fold the paper up and put it in one of the boxes that are there to collect votes. 

And that’s it! You’ve exercised your democratic rights! Go you! Time for the pub.

Just in case any new voters are concerned about the process, or any people with anxiety or similar are worried–the above is a great step by step description of what happens when you go to vote.

I love voting! It’s always very quiet in the polling station because people have all day to vote (and because not enough people vote, but still–it’s never like in the US where there’s a long line of people). The people staffing them are incredibly friendly and polite. It’s also illegal for people to campaign or hassle voters within 250 metres of these main entrance of a polling station. It’s never taken me more than five minutes. And you can walk away with the satisfaction of having exercised your statutory right to shape the country.

An additional suggestion that’s too late for this election but may be helpful in future: if you know you’ll have difficulty getting to the polls for any reason, apply for a postal vote.

I’ve heard a lot of people think you need to have a valid “excuse” to ask for a postal vote, but you don’t (unless you’re in Northern Ireland – sorry, guys!). Anyone can request one; you won’t even be asked why you want it. All you have to do is fill in a one-page form (found at the link above) and post it in You can ask for a postal vote for just one election, for a specified period of time, or forever. 

If you have a postal vote, it’ll arrive in the post a couple of weeks before the election. Inside you’ll find your ballot paper, a declaration form, and two envelopes. Start with the ballot paper. Just like a regular ballot paper, you put a cross next to the person you want to vote for, and then you seal it in one of the envelopes. Simple! All you have to do then is sign the declaration form, put that and the sealed ballot paper in the other envelope, and you’re done. Pop it in the postbox. It’s freepost so you don’t even need a stamp.

(If you’re worried you might forget to post it in time, no problem – you can hand your postal vote in at the polling station on election day and it will be counted.)

I did a postal vote this time because I’m on holiday the day of the election and there’s no way that I’m not going to vote. It really was simple to do. You put in your postcode and the website lets you know where to send your application to (in my case the local town hall).

You can choose whether to apply for a single postal vote for one election, whether to do it for a range of dates (useful if you’re going away to UNI and don’t want to have to fill in a new application each time) or to do it permantley – great for people who have problems leaving the house for whatever reason. You can even have your postal vote sent to a different address than your registered one (for this you will need to put a reason, but again could be something like ‘on holiday or at university).

There is no excuse not to vote.

http://whothefuckshouldivotefor.com <- who to vote for to get the Tories out