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First Episode - First Time Voters
34 Plays1 month ago
Democracy Volunteers brings you a new podcast concerning elections both in the UK and around the world. Interviews with experts, politicians, as well as voters looking at elections both past and present. Episode 1 is hosted by Edd Charlton, TV Presenter and Actor, talking to voters about their first experiences of voting and what motivated them to go to the polls for the first time. Interviewees includes star TV Chef Theo Michaels.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Observations Podcast
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Observations podcast. We are an apolitical podcast. My name's Ed and I'm going to be your host for this episode. Each week, either Jason, Alex or myself will be taking a deep dive and looking at the issues around the electoral landscape.
Voting Experiences Across the UK
00:00:28
Speaker
This week we are talking your voice, your vote. I've had a fantastic week meeting with various people from across the UK. discussing the first time they voted and their views on voting.
00:00:41
Speaker
Listen to some of these people I spoke to this week. It was 1978, so I'll be wearing flares, no doubt. i was wearing my chubby little tracksuit.
00:00:53
Speaker
It was in, was in like a little town hall, like attached to a church.
00:00:59
Speaker
So I spend a lot of time with our wonderful guests trying to understand why they voted. ah When did they vote? What age were they? And I want to know the good, the bad and the ugly, along with what they would say to somebody who's looking to vote for the first time.
First-Time Voter Stories
00:01:15
Speaker
So Niall from Cambridge gave an interesting answer as to his main intentions for voting. Take a listen to this.
00:01:26
Speaker
and My motivation for voting would be... So my dad, he often talks about politics. To his comeback, when we were like adolescent teenagers, was always, well, if you're not old enough to vote, you're not old enough to have have a say or have an argument. So I guess my main motivation for making my first vote at 18 would be so that I can have an argument with my dad and know that my my opinions were valid because I had voted.
00:02:02
Speaker
Alison from Cheshire raised a really interesting point when I caught up with her. Take a listen.
00:02:09
Speaker
The political arena was quite tense. I was a bit scared about going to the polling station. because I didn't know what you had to do and I knew you had to do it on your own, but that's just me.
00:02:22
Speaker
It was May 1979 and I was just 18. I was living in Whitley Bay in Tyne and Weir and i am sure i would be wearing, I don't know for certain, but so I seem to spend my life in a pair of navy blue corduroy flare trousers that had a pattern up the side of the flare, which was a pink rose.
00:02:46
Speaker
Well, firstly, I have to say I love those fashion choices. um And I totally get what you're talking about. That sense of nervousness, ah particularly for first time voters. It's one of those things, isn't it?
00:02:59
Speaker
Feels like it should be straightforward, ah but there's a weird pressure. You know, am I in the right place? Am I ah in the right queue? um Am I allowed to be here even?
00:03:10
Speaker
And then you can be standing there with your little pencil and you're worried about folding the paper in the right way. And, you know, you should definitely know that if you do feel like this, you are not alone. So ah according to ah Electoral Commission, around one in three first time voters say that they feel nervous or unsure about the process.
00:03:30
Speaker
And actually younger people are most likely to feel confused or put off by not knowing what to expect. It makes sense with things like at the ID rules, that polling station etiquette, or even what to do if you make a mistake on the ballot.
00:03:46
Speaker
It's not stuff that we're necessarily taught in school. Now, there's actually been a recent push to make voting more accessible and less intimidating.
00:03:57
Speaker
ah But I think we need to talk about a bit more, much like Alison did in that clip that we had just there. Just normalising those feelings can really help first-time voters.
Voter Impact and Participation Significance
00:04:10
Speaker
Now, I had the absolute pleasure of catching up with celebrity TV chef Theo Michaels, who had this to say. ah Give this one a listen. think voting is a difficult concept to get behind because you're a single person voting.
00:04:25
Speaker
So there is that sort of thought process of how much of an impact do I make? Is it really worth me voting? But I guess you have to sort of step back and look at the macro of it and think if everyone decided to do that, then no one would vote. so And I do believe you've got to be in it to win it. So if you want things to change, if you want to have an opinion on the way a country is run, you can't not vote.
00:04:50
Speaker
in it to win it and I absolutely love that. Yeah, the idea of wondering whether your vote really makes ah difference. I think this is something that a lot of people think and feel, especially when you are one voice among millions and it's very easy to question, ah am I making a difference?
00:05:11
Speaker
Well, If we look to 2019, the UK general election, nearly 14.5 million people didn't vote. Now, that's almost one third of everyone who could have.
00:05:26
Speaker
So that one vote in isolation may not make a difference. But when people sit out in their millions, it really can make a difference. And it's not always huge landslides either.
00:05:39
Speaker
Some results come down to really shockingly tight margins, like in Kensington back in 2017. That seat was decided by just 20 votes.
00:05:50
Speaker
Literally 20 people. Now, I reckon there's more people sitting in my local coffee shop right now than that. And there were 53 seats in 2019 that won by less than a 5% margin.
00:06:05
Speaker
And these are what we call marginal seats. And in places like this, you can have a genuine wait and your decision can make one of those swings.
Generational Voter Turnout Discrepancy
00:06:14
Speaker
Looking back to that 2019 election, and the bit that stings, it comes in here. 47% of 18 to 24 year olds voted in that election compared to a massive 74% of over 65s.
00:06:36
Speaker
So that older generational voice were being heard more loudly, not necessarily because they cared more, but because they turned up. Now, according to an electoral commission and research by LSE, it's not that younger people don't care about the issues.
00:06:54
Speaker
It's often that they feel disconnected from politics and they aren't really sure about how their vote vote will link to real change. But if you think about it, politics touches everything in our lives from rent, jobs, the NHS, climate change and education, the list goes up on I caught up with Roy from Newcastle and he had this interesting piece to say to first time voters.
00:07:22
Speaker
Take a listen to this. I was 18. I turned 18 in November 1973. So I was still at school at in the upper sixth form of the local grammar school.
00:07:34
Speaker
um As it happened, there was a general election only very shortly afterwards in February 1974. So I actually remember going to vote for the first time after school.
00:07:47
Speaker
I'd say that you should always take the responsibility to vote. um There are many places in the world that don't have that opportunity and democracy only works if people take a responsibility to vote.
00:07:59
Speaker
So I think it's um social and moral duty.
Informed Voting Importance
00:08:04
Speaker
So I caught up with Chloe Wigmore, who is an actor based in Surrey, and she had these interesting points to make.
00:08:14
Speaker
don't think I do remember the first time voting. It might have been in local elections. I don't really remember it in depth. And knowing me, I probably didn't do my research beforehand.
00:08:25
Speaker
I think I've definitely, the the older I've got I've been like made sure I'm more informed. um But when I was first started voting, I probably was not anywhere near as informed as I am now.
00:08:36
Speaker
like don't think at the time it would have made a difference to the community because the area I grew up in was heavily conservative. ah For a first time voter, do your research.
00:08:48
Speaker
Thank you, Chloe, for that one. While voting in the UK is relatively straightforward for most, it can be a little bit harder for others. We've mentioned ID requirements.
00:08:59
Speaker
and There are things like language barriers and or even lack of awareness on how to register to vote. When I caught up with Alison from Cheshire, I asked her a similar question and she mentioned about how we got our rights.
00:09:15
Speaker
ah Have a listen to this. I vote regularly and if I miss it's only because I literally haven't been around on the day and prior to postal voting but now I have a postal vote I always vote.
00:09:31
Speaker
um I really think it's important people fought hard for these votes and we should do it.
00:09:40
Speaker
Join me after this short break, where continue to speak to many of our special guests, and I'll be rejoined by celebrity chef Theo Michaels.
00:09:56
Speaker
Did you know at the last UK general election, democracy volunteers observed in over 200 Westminster constituencies the largest domestic election observation in British electoral history.
00:10:09
Speaker
You can find out more about the findings at democracyvolunteers.org.
Evolving Political Party Differences
00:10:20
Speaker
I think as a first time voter today, things have changed a lot. When I first voted, the the difference, the polo the polarity between Labour and Conservative, for instance, was miles apart. Nowadays, it's almost really down to the individual pieces of the manifestos on each one. Like they've they've come, there's a there's a much more grey area where previously, decades ago, it was much more black and white. They stood for very different fundamental things. Now, that line is blurry. So I think it's really about
00:10:53
Speaker
as a first-time voter looking into what they stand for, both philosophically and also very specifically in regards to you and your community. In an ideal world, you'd always vote for the best for the population, for the country as a whole, but I think the reality is people vote for what's best for them, and that's understandable.
00:11:15
Speaker
What really love about that comment is the fact that the parties aren't as polarised as they used to be. Now that can make it challenging when you're trying to select who to vote for.
00:11:26
Speaker
Perhaps you go into the polls for the first time or you're just turning 18 and you want to take your vote and have your say. Well, first things first, you've got to make sure that you're registered to vote. um You can do this online. It sounds basic, but you'd be surprised how many people missed this.
00:11:43
Speaker
I mean, in 2024 general election, the voter turnout was just 59.7%. That is the lowest since 2001. That means that a significant proportion of the population didn't have their say.
00:11:58
Speaker
Talking with Friends and family and colleagues can help influence decisions, but should this always be the case?
Local vs. National Voting Focus
00:12:06
Speaker
When I asked Alison from Cheshire about this and how she carried out research, she had an interesting story about her her views had changed over the years.
00:12:15
Speaker
Take a listen. My relationship with voting has changed. i ah used to vote the way... I thought I should. That is the way my parents voted.
00:12:27
Speaker
And I used to vote for the main leaders. and Going back to May 79, I really believed Margaret Thatcher should get in because the previous government, James Gallagher, had made such a mess of things and and there was no viable alternative.
00:12:45
Speaker
These days, i look far more locally than that and look to the local MPs and what they can offer. um It has far more relevance to my daily life and that of my offspring and um the the friends around me.
00:13:08
Speaker
One answer that has really stuck with me was from Nick who we spoke to earlier when I asked him for his advice of what he'd say to people who are looking to cast their vote.
Emotional vs. Rational Voting
00:13:19
Speaker
Listen to this one.
00:13:22
Speaker
This is probably controversial and not a very nice thing. Vote with your head, not with your heart. So many of us are swayed by emotions and Especially in the last few ones, it feels like, oh, you you want to be doing this to make a statement, you want to do that sort of stuff.
00:13:37
Speaker
But there is a sad, depressing truth to a lot of times that voting is the lesser of two evils. um But it can make a difference. So vote smart, not emotionally.
00:13:53
Speaker
That's an interesting take as well. So should voting be emotional? ah Voting is often framed as being a rational choice, something where you should compare policies, weigh up the facts and pick the best candidate.
00:14:07
Speaker
But let's be honest, a lot of the time our emotions play into it, particularly when a policy is close to home. And politicians know that emotions matter as well. So if we look at campaigns, for example,
00:14:20
Speaker
The Brexit campaign was designed to make us feel something. During the referendum, the Brexit referendum, the slogan was take back control. Now, this isn't a policy detail. It's a feeling.
00:14:33
Speaker
And it worked. Over 33 million people turned out to vote with 72% turnout. That is the one of the highest in history.
00:14:45
Speaker
But as Nick highlighted, it can get tricky. Emotional voting can also cloud judgment. It can lead to voting against something else out of fear.
00:14:57
Speaker
YouGov poll suggested that 45% of voters said that they would choose a party mainly to stop another party from winning. So it does lead the question, should we be voting with our heads or with our hearts?
Significance of Voting Participation
00:15:12
Speaker
And as I sign off, I want to leave you with this. What if your vote wasn't just a tick in a box, but a signal? A signal that you're paying attention, that you care about what's coming next, because silence can be misread as consent.
00:15:31
Speaker
So whether you're energised by the movement or frustrated by the options, casting a vote, any vote, is a way to say that I'm here, I matter, and I've got something to say.
00:15:43
Speaker
So as we wrap up this episode, let's leave you with this big question. What kind of message do you want your vote to send? Thank you ever so much for tuning in. This is the Observations podcast. We will be back with you next week.
00:15:56
Speaker
My name's Ed and we're signing off.
Podcast Conclusion and Credits
00:16:07
Speaker
The Observations podcast has been brought to you by Democracy Volunteers, the UK's leading election observation group. Democracy Volunteers is non-partisan and does not necessarily share the opinions of participants in the podcast.
00:16:21
Speaker
It brings the podcast to you to improve knowledge of elections, both national and international.