Get out and vote

I believe I am right in saying that the biggest turn-out of voters in a British general election, in percentage terms, occurred in 1950. Nearly 23 million cast their votes that year to give the Labour government another few months in office. But the following year almost as many people voted again and the Tories were back in. In fact Labour received just under 14 million votes in 1951, more than the Conservatives and their allies, but that’s another story.

Turn-out fluctuated around 75% for the next 50 years, and then plummeted to 59.4% in 2001. Commentators have agonised over the reasons for this sudden apathy. Is it because the old, clear-cut political divisions have gone, now that we’re all ‘conservative’, now that we are all fat and well-off, our passions diluted by TV reality shows and computer games?

Or have we become so cynical and sunk in despair that we see no point in registering our opinion?

Maybe, maybe not. Whatever the reason, the government thought voter apathy was a problem and with its usual short-termism saw the way to fix it.

Postal voting. If people can’t be bothered to get off their fat arses and wobble down to the polling station once every few years, let’s make easier for them. Send out thousands of ballot papers and anyone who finds them lying around can fill them in. Computer voting. Why not? No matter that the government cannot look at a computer system without its crashing or leaking private information.

They’ve even floated the idea of lowering the voting age to 16. God help us. I can see the Monster Raving Loony Party finally winning a seat. In any case, isn’t it true that the younger you are, the less likely you are to vote?

Postal voting has been a disaster. Following the last local elections in Birmingham, five elected councillors had to resign when ‘irregularities’ were exposed. And now we hear that a review of the electoral roll there has seen a 20,000 drop in the electorate.

No wonder. You just ring up and ask for as many ballots as you like. There are few checks. In blocks of flats, hundreds of voting forms arrive to be picked up by whoever finds them first. In certain families with, let’s say, a patriarchal culture people’s votes can be checked by whoever’s in charge. Helpful party workers will show residents of old folk’s homes how to vote and who to vote for.

No. If people don’t want to vote, fine. I don’t want my representatives chosen by people who don’t know the name of their own MP, or by people who don’t even exist. I’d like to see it more difficult, not easier. We should have to register personally with the same checks as are used to open a bank account and produce ID when we go the polling station. Postal votes should be for those who genuinely need them, not the idle and indifferent.

A scene from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance comes to mind.

John Qualen often played a comic Swede John Ford, ‘by Golly.’ In this film he plays an immigrant who is about to attend an election meeting. He puts on his best suit and hat, is seen off by his proud wife and daughter, arrives at the meeting-hall and flourishes his papers. ‘American citizen,’ he declares and goes in to vote.

That’s the spirit of democracy.