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Last Updated: Tuesday, 8 July, 2003, 14:00 GMT 15:00 UK
Why I didn't use my vote
As a report shows just 16% of people aged under 25 voted in May's Welsh assembly election, BBC News Online asked one voter why she did not cast her ballot


By Sarah Barry, 21
Cardiff graduate

In the old days, it was a big thing getting the right to vote.

But I don't feel as if my vote is valuable because I'm not going to see any benefit from it.

Computer mouse
Internet voting could provide an answer
I know that's really selfish but quite a lot of young people think nothing's going to change. Labour have been in power for the last few years and nothing has benefited them.

It didn't cross my mind to go and vote in May.

I had my finals. I wasn't watching TV anyway and I wasn't listening to the radio so I didn't know when the vote was.

Politicians talk in a really boring, monotone voice - younger AMs would be more in tune with us

None of my housemates voted either. We don't really hear enough about it in uni. I'm more likely to buy a magazine to relax than a newspaper to find out what is going on in Wales.

Politics switches me off. If I took more notice, it might not seem so boring. But because you only get little bits of people bitching in the news, it just doesn't interest me.

Holes on the cardboard voting booth, left, can be seen where East Timorese voters used a pencil to punch their ballot
Empty voting booths are a worry for politicians
The only thing that gets my back or that I'm really interested in is tuition fees because that applies to myself.

Also, politicians talk in a really boring, monotone voice.

I voted when I turned 18, I'm not sure whether it was in the General Election or the assembly.

I voted Labour but if the politicians walked past me in the street, I wouldn't know who they were.

Quite possibly I will vote at the next election because I'll have been out of student life, more like a working class person, needing to sort things out.

A lot more students would vote if it was via the internet. If all we had to do was click a button, it would be a lot easier.

Or even by text message - you know what younger people are like these days; they don't get off their phones.

Sarah Barry of Whitchurch, Cardiff, just graduated from University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, with a 1:1 in Sport and Physical Education.




SEE ALSO:
Young people 'too busy' to vote
08 Jul 03  |  Wales
Non-voters are the majority
02 May 03  |  Politics
Young 'not turned off' by politics
04 Dec 02  |  Politics
E-voting fails to stir the public
02 May 03  |  Technology
Voters 'keen on e-election'
29 Apr 03  |  Politics


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