Re: voting
 

You have a choice vote or don't vote, I just think it's a shame that you waste one of your rights by not voting.
:(

(Don't come on here complaining about anything political though, after all it's probably your fault for not voting, whatever, it is that gave you a bee in your bonnet!)
:)

Re: voting
 

im gonna vote this year, and its not gonna be conservative or bloody labour!!!

Re: voting
 

at least you went and voted panther.

Re: voting
 

Is it Australia where its compusory to vote ? or get a fine , seems a good idea to me and think they have the elections on a Sunday to cut down on lame excuses . Not sure how they work it if you don't like any of the candidates listed , maybe they have a box "none of the above" , .... but then what happens when "none of the above" gets the most votes ?

Re: voting
 

My Granddad once told me a story. He was drunk, and it was not often he was drunk. Being Ukrainian, he had a tolerance to alcohol - though it was the only way I could find out about his, and my past. So I didnt mind that he had a few extra vodka's. He told me that in his hometown of Lviv, he'd been training to be a priest. That, in the small farming town where he grew up in the Ukraine, he didnt completely agree with the Russian Government at the time but no-one was what you could call militant. The odd grumble here and there.

Unfortunately, Army Group Central - with one million men, tanks etc, marched through the Ukraine - and my Granddad was forced into the Red Army.

He was put in charge of a machine gun post in north Turkey. One night, he and a few of his friends decided that the time was right to cross the line and defect - they couldnt stand the soviet government of the USSR. They tossed their magazines into no-mans-land and ran out of their trenches shouting in German "We surrender, please have mercy!" A German Officer met my Granddad halfway across. After looking them up and down for a few seconds, this raged band of unsuspecting Russian conscripts, he shouted to them "Stop!!". My Granddad said at that point he thought that was it, that he would be shot. That he would never raise a family. The German Officer directed him round a land mine that he was about to stand on, and into the trenches. There he gave him some schnapps an invited him to pick a record. His best friend was not so lucky, he got shot in the head on the way over.

I'm telling this tale in public because its the only one I can relate to. Its the only thing I ever managed to get my Granddad to tell me before he died. A tutor at college once reprimanded me for saying that if people didnt want to vote it was their choice. He said "People must vote, because our fathers have died so that they can". I replied "people can choose not to vote, because that is their choice, and thats what our fathers died for - and please Sir don't presume to lecture me on such a subject".

Just thought id share that.

Re: voting
 

My point is, irrespective of party politics, and we can all play party politics, the right to vote should also include the right not to vote. That idea that freedom of choice is at the centre of the right itself. Your right to choose, in every sense. If you're forced to vote, thats not freedom, thats a dictatorship. Im not encouraging people not voting, I think the more people are engaged in our political process, the richer it is, though freedom to choose should be just that.

Re: voting
 

I agree.

Personally I've always voted, but freedom should also mean we have the right not too as well.

I don't think enforced voting is a good idea.

However, educating people about politics, and what their vote means, is a good idea.

If I really couldn't decide who to vote for, I'd go and spoil my voting slip, because they are always counted, and at least my dissatisfaction would be offically noted.:D

Re: voting
 

I wouldn't have a problem, but then don't complain about the Council, County Council or Government, simple

Re: voting
 

That statement will get you **** rating from your peers.
(The asterix depict 4 Star).
"Garinda went to the polling station to keep the percentages up and spoil his ballot paper."
I would'nt allow anyone who came out with a statement like that to educate my pet worm

Re: voting
 

Why would anybody want a pet worm, and even more alarmingly want it educating :confused:

Re: voting
 

There is a distinct shortage of cultural activity on the costa del sol?

Re: voting
 

My “Official Poll Card” arrived the other day and I will be using it come the 1st May 2008, as I do every polling day. Who gets my vote remains to be seen, as I have no idea who the candidates are in my ward. But if there is a Labour candidate s/he will be ignored, as will the Tory candidate and the Liberal one. Hopefully there will be other candidates and if there are one of them will get my vote. If there aren’t I will have a problem. How I resolve it remains to be seen.

However the real point of this and any other polls is the alleged secrecy of the ballot. There is nothing secret about it.

My name is on the Electoral Register with an allocated number, which also appears on the “Official Poll Card”. At the polling station my name appears on a list, with that number, and the official writes alongside my name the number of the ballot paper before handing it over to me. OK! I can go into a booth that is shielded from prying eyes to cast my vote but that is the only bit that is secret.

My choice is registered on the ballot paper that has a unique number that has been written against my name on the Electoral List. Thus it is simplicity itself for someone in government to find out which way I and EVERYONE ELSE votes.

I firmly believe that there is a database (and has been for years) that lists every single eligible voter and how those voters voted in both local and national elections. And no I cannot prove it.

Re: voting
 

The little slips you complete are not referenced. Yes, all the rest of what you say is correct, you have a register number etc, but when you go into the little booth, you will have been given a slip with no identifying features on it. As such, someone could tell that you have voted, or at least been given a voting slip, but there is no way of knowing how you used that slip

Re: voting
 

The last time that I voted the ballot paper was torn off a pad and the counterfoil and ballot paper had a serial number on them. The clerk wrote that number against my name on the Electoral List.

Have a look on the 1st May 2008.

Re: voting
 

yes you are quite right JB, i noticed that many years ago, so when it comes down to it, it isnt a secret ballot at all, they know exactly who has voted for them