Why I won't be voting tactically

[altariel]

Meanwhile, in the present, the rough beast of the election slouches on - apparently the fate of the nation lies solely in the hands of a few lunatic tactical voters in Royston Vasey, or perhaps it was a Daschund called Colin, I forget now. Every other piece of political propaganda popping through my letterbox earnestly exhorts me to cast a tactical vote in order to keep out whoever.

Back, back, ye demons of cynicism! I shall not make my already meagre contribution to democracy even more pointless! I shall cast a vote that roughly approximates to my beliefs! The BBC as ever provides: here I may compare and contrast the relative merits of arsenic, strychnine, and hemlock. And on May 5th I shall take my poison, secure in the knowledge that I may have only cried out in the wilderness, but at least it was for something I nearly believe in.

Comments

[julesjones]

The ballot paper has turned up. It includes a British National Party cnadidate. This is an excellent incentive to vote for anyone except him, just to make his fraction of the vote that little bit smaller...

Hmm. BNP, unstated, Labour, Independent, Conservative, UKIP, LibDem. What used to be a rock solid Labour seat, which never stopped me going out and voting for Another Party. Voter apathy in the face of overwhelming odds is one way the odds get to stay overwhelming...

This year *none* of them inspire me to go out and vote for them, but at least the Lib Dems don't actively inspire me to go out and scribble "none of the above" on my ballot paper. This is not a good way to select my preferred candidate, but it's better than nothing.

Vote early and often

[julesjones]

It has been posted. I hope it gets there in time - even if I'd filled it in, found someone to countersign it, and taken it to the post office yesterday, the day it arrived, it would have been pushing it. Not sure what the point is of providing overseas voters with ballot papers if you're not going to take account of the fact that it takes that little bit longer in the post, both on the way there and the way back. This being a solid Labour seat I wouldn't put it past them to deliberately delay sending them, for the same reason Thatcher extended the franchise to people who'd been out of the country for twenty years. Trouble with this conspiracy theory is that Other Half's envelope arrived from the three-way marginal, Lib Dem last time electorate only one day before mine did...

Don't think much of the security on the postal ballot (and yes, it appeared to be exactly the same packet that they send out for domestic postal ballots, complete with pre-franked return envelope). I can see why there was much lamenting last year about a return to voting the way the boss or the husband told you to vote. :-(