A democracy that works for us

 

Voter registration week begins today. As part of our series on the importance of voting, UNITElive will feature one story each day this week that tells the stories of people from all walks of life and why voting matters to them.

Michaela Rivers is one of the millions of young eligible voters aged 18 to 34. In the last general election five years ago, only a third of those in her age cohort bothered to cast their ballot.

This time around, the TUC estimates that the under-35 vote has the power to decide the election — if, that is, they decide to turn up. In order for the youth vote’s voice to be heard on equal ground with voters over 35, roughly 4 million more young people will need to register this year and cast their ballots.

Rivers, a Unite national rep for HSBC, is only twenty-six years old, but she’s known for much longer than that why voting matters.

“I come from a strong union background. My father was a miner. My family taught us very early on that voting does make a difference, that it’s only through collective participation that democracy works the way it should,” she said.

“The way I see it personally, though, is that we really haven’t had the right to vote for very long, especially women. We’ve only been given that right for less than one hundred years. It’s a right that many, many people generations before us fought for. To not exercise that right is to turn our backs on their sacrifices.”

Still, Rivers, who is from Swansea, understands why so many young people may be disaffected by the current political system.

“Politics now doesn’t speak to people of my generation,” she said. “But that might be the case precisely because we tend not to vote, which again, is why we need to vote, so that our concerns are taken seriously.

“When you see how young people in particular have been hit hard by the current government — just look at some of the policies that are levied against us specifically, from tuition hikes and student debt, to cuts in housing benefit — and you’ll understand how important it is to vote.”

She also notes that, although young people may be disillusioned by national politicians, she said that local MPs can be very effective in lobbying on specific issues important to people locally.

Rivers considers herself lucky that she comes from a family which educated her on the importance of voting.

“I vote because I was taught at a very young age why we need to vote — so that our interests are represented in government. But other young people are not so lucky. How are they supposed to know about voting when it’s hardly ever discussed in schools?”

This lack of awareness that Rivers speaks of is all the more insidious now that the voter registration system has changed this year, which has seen almost a million mostly young people fall off the register.

Unite, in conjunction with the Daily Mirror, Bite the Ballot, Hope not Hate and various other campaign groups is seeking to change this with our voter registration campaign #NoVoteNoVoice. Find out more here.