Apr 5th, 2012
3rd May Elections – Can You Vote?
By 38 Degrees team
Photograph by t0msk (Flickr)
Next month, 38 Degrees members living across England, Scotland and Wales will have the chance to vote in local elections. Lots of council seats are up for grabs all over the country, while the election for the Mayor of London is still too close to call. Liverpool and Salford will also be electing a Mayor for the first time too.
Whoever wins these votes will be making decisions which will have a massive effect on all our lives: where we live, how we travel and how safe we are on our streets. But for thousands of people, there’s a risk they won’t get a say because they haven’t registered to vote by 18th April – that’s less than two weeks from today!
Could you have forgotten to register to vote? It’s easy to overlook it if you’ve recently moved house or become an EU citizen. But registering is easy. It takes 5 minutes on the About My Vote website – just fill in, print out and post the form before the deadline.
It’s not always easy to decide who to vote for. Some people have already decided. Others are still making up their minds, and some people might decide not to vote at all. But being registered doesn’t mean you have to vote. It just means that you’ve got the choice when election day arrives.
The registration form doesn’t ask for loads of details. It just needs your name, address and nationality.
People power is the engine that drives 38 Degrees. Lots of 38 Degrees members say that voting is a really important part of living in a democracy. Making sure as many of us as possible have the chance to vote is one way of making sure politicians know they answer to us.
Let’s make sure that every one of us gets the chance to have their say – make sure you’re registered to vote, then ask your friends and family to do the same by April 18th.
