In every general election since 1955, at least 1/5 of the British electorate have not cast their vote.
In the 2019 general election, Boris Johnson’s government won the biggest Conservative majority since 1987 with 80 seats, winning 43.6% of the popular vote. However, commonly reported figures like these are misleading. If the huge number of the electorate who did not vote are taken into account, the Conservative Party no longer has a majority across the country, instead winning the support of only 29.7% of the electorate. In fact, non-voters outweighed Conservative voters by 1,097,482 people, as 32.7% of potential votes were not cast. This low voter turn-out calls into question the mandate that Boris Johnson’s government claims. If government legitimacy derives from representing the ‘majority’, then an imaginary party representing non-voters would be the most representative and the most legitimate party of them all.
Voter turnout in UK general elections and the Brexit referendum from 1918 to 2019.
– statistica.com
This problem is not specific to the Conservative Party, nor any particular party. Throughout the elections of successive UK governments, a large minority of the electorate has not voted. Low voter turnout is a key issue for countries all around the world too. If a huge percentage of people never vote, a huge percentage of people’s voices are never heard, and they remain unrepresented by parties and politicians. People who don’t vote will never have a say in how the country is run – imagine how different the UK political spectrum would be if voter turnout was 10%, even 20% higher. There is no telling which parties would gain more seats in parliament; general election results too would be wildly impacted. UK politics as a whole would be a completely different entity if only more people who are eligible to vote did so. The politically engaged who are reading this would probably never consider not voting—after all it is clear that the societal benefits of voting outweigh the personal effort of doing so. So why do over a third (36% on average) of people in the UK abstain?
In general, one of the most important factors affecting voting turnout is the perceived impact of an individual’s vote, the likelihood that one’s vote will be pivotal. The ‘pivotal voter model’ states that when a voter feels the party that they support is the majority party, they are statistically less likely to vote, as the perceived difference that their vote would make is less. This is why polls are so important: if pollsters predict a close election, voter turnout is higher. Of course, the opposite is true too, when the electorate believes that one party will win by a majority, voter turnout plummets. The general election of 2001 illustrates this perfectly. Tony Blair (Labour) was elected as Prime Minister for the first time in 1997, winning a landslide majority of 179 seats, with 71.4% of voter turnout. It was clear that Labour had won the support of a large proportion of the UK. Following the theory of the pivotal voter model, at the next general election of 2001, when support for Labour was still high, only 59.4% of people voted. The pivotal vote is just one largely uncontrollable factor that impacts voter turnout—but there are others that we can work to resolve.
There are many in the UK who are disillusioned with national and local politics. For a large number of people there is a disconnect between the issues that they face in their daily lives and the government, despite the most important role of government being to improve citizen’s lives. It is no surprise that voters who have found their towns or cities neglected under different successive governments have eventually become tired of participating in a system that to them, feels futile. This links back to the idea of the pivotal vote, manifesting itself through disillusionment: the perceived impact that a vote holds varies depending on the connection felt between Westminster and local issues. The government can work to increase voter turnout through engaging people from deprived areas in politics. To end the vicious circle of deprivation and political disengagement, governments should focus on funding neglected councils, making it clear that that politics and local issues intersect positively. This would tackle the issue of political disillusionment, and also deal with the wider issue of regional inequality.
If democratic systems are to be upheld, it is essential voters participate. Education greatly impacts the level of democratic participation.
2010 UK general election turnout by age group and highest level of education attainment.
– democraticaudit.com
At every age cohort, the higher the level of education, the higher the likelihood of voting. Education is such an important factor as it is something that can be actively improved upon. Governments can introduce policy regarding education, that can actively combat low voter turnout (or the ‘democratic deficit’, as this is often dubbed). For example, university fees could be lowered, and more funding could be given to schools and programs that encourage children to stay in school to become more highly educated.
Education regarding information, not just in the sense of educational attainment, is vital too. Voting can often be seen as a daunting task – though the walk to the polling station may be easy, deciding which box in your ballot to put an X in, is not. It is difficult to see through the rhetoric and soundbites that politicians thrust into the public sphere, delivered by the media. I think this is a key reason that people do not vote—being unsure and uninformed not only makes for a worse vote, but also makes people less likely to vote. Feeling uneducated on parties and politicians does not give people the confidence to unapologetically vote for a party that they think represents them. It is unfortunate that many people in the UK are not engaged in voting when there is so much information and so many resources out there that can make voting a lot less intimidating. Here are some of the best ways to educate yourself to become an informed voter:
Manifestos are the best way for voters to gauge the stance of a party and see what they plan to do if they were to be elected. Look up the manifestos of parties that you are considering; they offer a clear vision of what a party’s policy would be if they were elected, they give an insight too into a party’s values. This information is widely available online. The BBC also has a fantastic resource that compares parties by key issues and priorities: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50291676. Another really useful resource to help you decide upon which party suits you best is a political compass calculator – you may find your values align with a party you didn’t expect! Here is the most widely used political compass website: https://www.politicalcompass.org.
Knowing who your local MP is, and researching them and other local candidates is essential too. They are the person you will actually be voting for, who will directly represent you and your constituency in parliament. It’s important to find out what these candidates promise to do to represent your constituency and what their values are. However, the best indicator of how an MP willact in parliament is how they have already acted in parliament. To research your current MP, and other candidates that have been in government before, you can use https://www.theyworkforyou.com to find out exactly how they have voted in parliament in the past. These two avenues of research, MPs and parties, help inform voters, giving them the confidence to decisively cast their vote on election day, increasing voter turnout.
