Students - Can’t vote, won’t vote?
Students throughout the country appear to be waiving their right to vote, according to a recent article in The Times. Despite eligibility they appear not to wish to go to the ballots for three main reasons.
The first is that they fear that by registering with their local council they will become liable to pay Council Tax and cause further strain on already stretched grants and loans. Normally students are exempt from paying the tax but conflict arises for those who share a house or flat with someone receiving income support, such as unemployed recent graduates. Those receiving benefits lose their council tax rebate when sharing with others not on income support, but the rules do not discriminate between students and non-students. Although the government plans to rectify the anomaly in April, this will be too late for those students not already registered, preventing them from voting in this general election.
The government states that registering to vote has no connection whatsoever with benefit assessments. However, the president of the National Union of Students, Douglas Trainer, maintains that despite this many students are under the impression that they would receive a Council Tax bill if they did register.
A second reason offered as to why almost 2 million young people neglected to vote in the last general election is apathy. Students who live in a world free from council tax and income tax feel detached from the rest of the voting population.
From birth until now, the particular flavour of political party in power has never really affected them. The fact that they are now entitled to vote seems irrelevant when they are locked away inside large academic institutions. However, students should not feel like a tiny minority - all the political parties accept that student votes will be crucial in the general election. The applies particularly to constituencies where the sitting MP has a slim majority and a large student populaiton. Both the Conservative and Labour parties have identified twelve or more seats where their MPs could be ousted by the student vote. In fact, Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell was reportedly so concerned about the student vote in his seat of Loughborough, despite a majority of almost 11,000, that he switched to the safer Charnwood. Luckily for incoming Kensington and Chelsea candidate, Alan Clark, the Conservative majority of over 30,000 is likely to swamp any vote by Imperial College students.
The recent ‘Rock The Vote’ campaign, supported by the NUS and various celebrities, was aimed to encourage students to vote. The NUS is careful to be non-partisan, claiming that they "are not worried who students vote for, as long as they exercise their right to vote". Estimates suggest that around 250,000 extra students have registered as a result.
The final reason is the growing doubt expressed by some students in ‘the system’. Many students who are politically orientated, and would like to vote, feel that none of the major parties appear to represent students to their satisfaction. With this in mind, they would prefer to abstain rather than make a choice which represents a compromise.
