Do You Vote?

Not voting for a certain party is one thing; not voting at all is another.

Interviewing students at KCL

Boring, unreliable, selfish and out of touch. This is some of the terminology that recurred more often than not to describe politics and politicians as we investigated voting patterns in and around King’s College London last month. We interviewed a bunch of students, lecturers and passers-by at Somerset House, asking them firstly if they voted, and secondly why they did or didn’t vote.

In the context of the imminent general elections, our mini unprofessional-but-time-killing-and-revealing investigation was carried out to understand the importance people attach to voting; not to find out which party you are all voting for. We aren’t interested in that. A lot of the people we spoke to were from abroad so the political context in their country differs to that of the UK’s, as did their reasoning.

During the interviews, we were faced with a wide variety of reasons. For some, voting is a civic duty while for others it is the only way of having their voices heard and being able to contribute to, influence and bring about change in politics. A few, especially women, also felt that they owed it to the suffragettes who fought so hard to earn women the right to play a role in democracy. Additionally, one person told us that voting was a social norm, “all my friends vote, we all go and do it together.” Right, ok. Voting isn’t meant to be a fun social day out with friends though, really, is it? Your vote can determine the laws that will affect you in the future. (We shall get back to that one later.)

What we found most interesting however (this is not to say that the aforementioned reasons weren’t) were the reasons for which a lot of the interviewees choose not to roll up to the polling stations on Election Day. Our first observation was that all those who said they didn’t vote were of our generation – this was at university so the representation wasn’t equal, but it reflects the official figures highlighting that under 25s are uninterested and politically apathetic. All the thirty to fifty year olds whom we spoke to said they vote.

We think voting is important, but reasons behind voter apathy proved to be rather revealing. Some of the students we interviewed simply didn’t feel involved in politics enough to feel the need to vote. They argued that until they knew enough about the ins and outs of current politics, they weren’t ready to vote. Ultimately, this makes sense. A lot of people who vote have no idea what they are voting for and this can arguably do more harm than good. One British student blamed this on the fact that he was not taught enough about politics when he was at school, therefore he had never been exposed to it properly or developed an interest in it. He then went on to say that unless an issue became a personal cause for concern, he would not feel the need to get involved. Turns out, this is the case for 58% of young people who are eligible to vote in the UK.

Although we had not set out to make this investigation about the upcoming UK elections, it inevitably became so. As we asked our questions, responses were aimed at the situation in London rather than democracy and the right to vote in general.

Talking about the UK elections, many interviewees argued that their vote would not make a difference anyway, so why bother? As one of the lecturers we interviewed said “When you vote sometimes it doesn’t lead to change so it makes sense for people to think ‘well I’m not going to vote’”. Like Russell Brand – despite his last minute change of mind (he now wants you all to vote for Labour, bearing in mind a lot of his followers now aren’t registered on his demand), they believe that there is no point in voting because all politicians are corrupt and lie. This may be so, but Russell Brand’s revolution is not likely to happen – at least not the type of revolution he talks about. Whether or not we are controlled by the 1%, change must be brought about democratically. If more eligible youngsters vote, the balance of power can be shifted. Whereas if fewer young people vote it could be that democracy will one day no longer be justified to work.

Taking into account the entire population, what seems to be the case in UK elections this year, is not so much that people aren’t voting (doubtless many are of older generations) but rather that what they want is not on offer. This is in line with what one British student told us. For her, it is important that her voice gets heard, but she doesn’t have much belief in any of the parties that could potentially represent her. So it is not that she thinks voting is de facto pointless, but rather that in the context of these elections she doesn’t know where her vote will represent her needs the most. This argument is also in line with Rick Edwards’, who despite understanding the so-called ‘democratic crisis’ we are in, has been urging young people to vote, albeit not pushing a left or right agenda. His view is simply that the low young-voter turnout in the UK must be increased because “if people don’t vote now, they’re less likely to vote in the future.” This is especially worrying given that in twenty years time it is those of our generation who will be in power.

At the end of the day, we are all affected by politics, whether we notice it or not. As one of the interviewees said, “naturally some people are going to take more of an interest in politics than others, but voting is an incentive to become more interested and read about what is going on because it will affect you.” Voting gives us the democratic power to control those who are in control. So, if one’s argument for not voting is that nothing will change anyway, they ought to think again. If change is what you want, by simply not voting, you are letting the system carry on as it is. If the younger generation feels that they have been abandoned and are not currently being represented, they must protest by voting. More importantly though, they must make their voices heard during the five year gap that fills election time, to break the status quo of the available options which are not adequate enough. One would assume that new parties would form as a result, as has been the case in Spain with Podemos and in Greece with Syriza. These parties would then have to listen to the needs of the people and the change they want will come about. We are not implying that this should be the case in the UK, but rather that boycotting the ballot box is not going to bring about the lack of change people are complaining about. There are other democratic options; people just need to get more involved.

And with regards to the UK general elections in two days time, even though only one of us at Briefing Report is eligible to vote (the rest of us are “immigrants”) and bearing in mind we are all political science students who believe voting is decisive, we too are finding it hard to decide on a candidate among the options apt for 10 Downing Street. So, we do understand British voter apathy. The politicians and their not-so-convincing manifestos aren’t making it easy, really, are they?

Also, this (Survation) is quite interesting. As is this (Huffington Post) and this (Total Politics) and this (BBC). And if you have a lot of spare time to spare, so is this (Audit of Political Engagement 2014).

We filmed it all and it will be up as soon as we become iMovie savvy.