Whatever you think. Just vote.

At The Team we’ve been sharing this gif via LinkedIn and Instagram. Feel free to share it - or the message - on your own networks (WhatsApp, Threads, Snapchat etc) or reshare our post.

Why is it important?

One third of those registered are likely not to vote on Thursday. If those voters were a party, they would be the largest party. They are the unheard third.

But this discriminates against so many voices. It’s important that these moments in time are used by people to send a message about what they think. By way of illustration, just 0.3% of votes cast will be spoiled ballot papers and there is no way of determining whether this is a deliberate action or an error.

• 75% of people say they have no trust in politicians.
• There are more people who are dissatisfied (39%) with democracy than satisfied (33%)
• So many electors are reported as saying all politicians or parties are the same.

I doubt that Sian Berry of the Green Party and Nigel Farage of Reform UK are the same. In the US, electors have increasingly been dividing along ideological lines for over a decade.

The message we're sending out is simple. Take time to think through who you want running your country for the next five years. Consider who you do not want to have influence. But whatever you think, vote.

For many people around the world the right to vote is not a given. Many peoples are unable to use their voice. They look at systems like the one we have in the UK, or Finland, Costa Rica, the USA, or Mauritius and may well wish they had the same rights. According to the Democracy Index there are just 24 fully democratic countries worldwide. Let that sink in: democracy is in the minority.

There are just 24 fully democratic countries worldwide. Democracy is in the minority.

According to the British Election Study there’s around an 80% chance that a 70-year-old?voted at the last general election, compared with a 45% chance that a 20-year-old did.

Turnout among people of ethnic minorities is five percentage points lower than average?– probably a reflection of lower registration rates. We know homeownership drives registration and according to government data in every region in England (except the North East) white British households are more likely to be homeowners than all ethnic minority households combined. Those identifying as Indian are the only ethnic group where homeownership is higher. There are reasons behind these facts. I am not exploring them here, but merely pointing to the links between the data and elections.

From age to homeownership to neurodiversity to access to education, there are many reasons why people don't vote, but socio economic factors play a big role.

When it comes to wealth disparity then according to the Electoral Commission at the 2010 general election there was a 23 percentage point gap between the turnout of the richest income group and the poorest. Put simply, people with money are more likely to decide the election result.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

If we all?vote, if we all have a say, then the result needs to be taken seriously. If we don’t vote, then our right to complain is blunted; our ability to register what we think and to influence what our political leaders do gets stunted.

By not voting we leave other people to choose the government.? Governments know they don't need to listen to?people who don't?vote.

The majority of UK electors (73%) are confident that elections are well-run and 79% are satisfied with the process of voting. So, the actual election process is not broken, even if we may have different views on whether the results should be viewed through a first past the post system or via proportional representation. If that’s the case, then there are parties that have different views on this.

Perhaps what’s broken is us. Perhaps we need to look at ourselves and ask why we are not engaging with politics anymore. The danger is that we leave this point of self-examination to a later time when it is too late, and when the right has been either taken away or eroded.

And perhaps we need to get better at accepting what other people think.

We live in an age where too many people are entrenched in their world views. That’s been reinforced by societal changes in how we talk with one another. The social media phenomena of ‘likes’ and happy/angry emojis has created a marketplace for ideas where people find themselves too quickly either held to account for past posts or defending views that they have been too quick to take a position on through the press of a button.

If I had my way, I might turn off the ‘like’ facility on all social media.

All this leads to the final call to action.

Don’t leave it to other people to decide the election for you. I’m an older white middle-class man. I’m far more likely to vote. By demographic is far more likely to influence the election. Yes, my views still count, but whatever you think, turn up; vote; use your ballot paper.