Is it just me?

[vicki87]

I generally do not understand the people who wanted to vote Lib Dem, but didn't because 'they won't get into power anyway'.

You only have 1 vote, it's not as if 1 vote can influence anything by itself, so why not just use your 1 vote for who you would rather see in power?

[boxtops]

I think it's because some people feel that if you vote for a minority party, then one of the others who you don't want, might still get in.

[thetruthhurts]

Wasted vote

[woofgang]

Yes, while in principle I don'r agree with it "Vote yellow get Brown" is a powerful argument IMO

[ttfn]

ttt - that would be your humble opinion would it?

[thetruthhurts]

ttt?

[vicki87]

Its pure madness!! If you vote for a minority party who you want to win the election than any other party, how on earth would that mean that one of the others you want might get in.

That would happen anyway! It's only 1 vote! If you vote minority than see then major party get in who didn't want to the most, that would have happened had you voted minor or major party anyway!

So why don't people just use there 1 vote to vote for who they want. It's utter madness. I will never understand it.

[New Judge]

People are often faced with a choice where none of the parties promises to provide what they want (as I am). They then vote so that the party they would most like to see out rather than the one they want to see in gets ejected. Consider this: a seat is held by Labour and the Tories stand no chance of winning it. The LibDems, however, came a close second last time. Tory voters wishing to see Labour removed from office might vote LibDem to deprive Labour of the seat.

Many also consider that, in a great number of constituencies, a vote for one of the two major parties is “wasted” unless you happen to live in a “marginal”.

There is a principle misunderstanding shared by the electorate when voting in UK general elections (and one which all the parties go out of their way to encourage). That is that voters are not (or should not be) voting to elect a party, or a government or a Prime Minister. They are voting to elect an MP to best represent their interests at Westminster. Only after they have all been elected should the question of who the Queen invites to form a government be raised.

Of course the parties do not want this. They want voters to vote for “them” regardless of the candidate and indeed that is precisely what almost all of us do. This is because we are presented with two or three packages of measures which the parties say they will enact if elected to power (promises which they rarely fulfil). In 99% of constituencies the individual candidates’ qualities and proposals– and more often than not their identities – are irrelevant.

Only if party politics are abandoned and we return to individual MPs undertaking to canvass their constituents on individual issues and voting according to their wishes will this situation change. And there is as much chance of that as there is of the UK leaving the EU,