“The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have” (John Lewis); “There’s no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter” (Barack Obama). You’ve got to be in it to win it on 4 July 2024.

Imagine not having to vote tactically, a democracy where politians were elected in proportion to which party voters would prefer to be making decisions on their behalf and in their interest.

This is not the UK. Unfortunately many of us have to make a choice between whether we vote for: (i) the party we would prefer to win the seat in our constituency; or (ii) the party we consider the best alternative between the two frontrunner candidates (or least unappealing of them).

Let’s take for example this seat in East Wiltshire. According to electionmaps.uk the current projection is that the Conservatives, even though massively down on the 2019 election result, would win the seat. Labour is projected to be 6.3 percentage points behind. If green voters thought Labour was better than the Conservatives for what they wanted and voted on that basis then Labour would be only 0.2 percentage points behind the Conservatives. Add a few Liberal Democrat voters and in the all or nothing election that is ‘First Past the Post’ there would be a Labour MP representing the views of East Wiltshire in the House of Commons.

Now imagine those people who might be part of that group of tactical voters who discover they haven’t registered to vote and miss their chance.

According to the Electoral Commission “We’ve found that young people, students and those who have recently moved are least likely groups to be registered. Registering just isn’t on the top of peoples’ to do list when they’ve just moved house or started their student life”.

It seems to me that if “The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have” then perhaps “helping ensure people in our social network are registered to vote is the second most powerful nonviolent tool we have”. So please consider sending a message to your younger loved ones and check that they are registered to vote.

You might also consider whether it’s appropriate to put a campaign poster up outside your house.

#climateaction