Many of us will be voting for the first time in the general election coming up on the 12th of December. If you’re anything like me, I’ve been desperate to vote for years and I find the whole thing very exciting. Staying up all night as the results come in is nothing short of tradition in my family. However, it’s not as simple turning up to the polling station on a cold Thursday in December, especially for students. Unusually, our demographic is granted the right to be registered to vote in two locations: at home and at university. This all sounds well and good, but the catch is that we can only actually cast a vote in one of the constituencies. I’ve found the choice of who to vote for and where quite stressful and thought I’d share the process I went through to make it simple.
VOTE
Now, this one sounds obvious. We all know that the turnout for students and young people is low. In 2015, only 43% of 18-24 year olds actually voted. I always found this baffling, but the complication of being registered in two places enlightened me somewhat. It’s overwhelming, but the most important thing (even if you ignore everything I say in the next steps) is that you vote. Walk to the polling station in your pyjamas if you wish; get a McDonalds afterwards as an award. I don’t care, as long as you cross one of those boxes!
REGISTER
The deadline for registering to vote is the 26th November. You can do it here and it takes thirty seconds. The only piece of information you need is your National Insurance number (which you can also access online if you’ve lost yours, like I had). You can register in one or two locations, and if you’re already registered at home and are now registering in Notts, just tick the box to say you’re a student and want to remain registered in both locations. If you’re planning to vote at home, the chances are you’ll need to fill out a postal vote form which you can find here and send it to your electoral office at your local council.
TACTICAL VOTING
It’s increasingly seeming as if this election is one of the most important we will vote in in our lifetimes. I won’t flaunt the ‘B’ word, but the outcome of this election is clearly going to significantly impact our future. As well as this, environmentalists aren’t shying away from the statement that this is the ‘last election to save the planet’. So, you get it. It’s a big one! There are guides all over the internet on how to tactically vote, so I recommend you do some research on how you can have the most impact, depending on where your affliations might lie. With recent resignations and defections, the results of this election are some of the most unpredictable in living history and there could be a swing in even some of the securest strongholds. To give some extra help, I’m going to outline the Nottingham constituencies and their election History. This information is all available here for you to see what’s going down at home.
The constituency affecting the majority of UoN students is Nottingham South. The MP is Lillian Greenwood, a Labour politician, and she holds a strong majority. This is quite a safe seat, so if you live in University Park, Jubilee or Lenton, it’s worth seeing if your vote would be better cast elsewhere. However, the student population has a strong sway over this area and therefore where we go, the seat very much could follow.
Then there’s Broxtowe. This is a juicy one. This area encompasses all of Broadgate Park and Beeston. The current MP is Anna Soubry, a former Conservative who defected to the Independent Group for Change. Soubry holds a tiny majority and only received 800 more votes than the Labour candidate in 2017. My guess would be that there’ll be a split in the traditional Tory vote between Soubry and the new Conservative candidate, Darren Henry, swinging the overall result towards Greg Marshall (Labour). If you’re looking to vote Labour, this is where to do it.
LOOK BEYOND BREXIT
Although Brexit is important, it’s even more crucial to remember that we could be stuck with the government we select for five years. They’re going to be in charge of much more than our relations with the EU. Reading manifestos is a good way to look into the prospective policies of each party. There are quizzes available online where you can answer questions about your specific beliefs and they tell you which party would be the best fit (just make sure you’re not taking a biased one!). As well as this, all MPs voting records are available online, so you can see how they correlate with your own values; it’s so important to see if you have an MP that you can back.
So there we have it, my guide about how to use your vote most effectively. Remember, don’t get too caught up in tactical voting to the point where you neglect your beliefs. The most important thing is to vote for a party or individual that you think will best represent your values in parliament, this is the point of a democracy, after all! It’s a game of weighing up what’s most important to you, and making a decision based on that. Register, turn up, and stick to what you believe in, the rest is out of your control!